DISCLAIMER: NOT MINE, NEVER BEEN MINE. NOT MAKING A SINGLE KNUT.

"You wanted to see us, Professor McGonagall?" Draco asked, walking into the Transfiguration room with Hermione and Harry.

"Yes. I've discussed the matter with the Headmaster and he's agreed to let me give animagus lessons to you three, if you were still interested," McGonagall said. The Deputy Headmistress remembered hearing the students express a keen interest in the subject for the last 2 years, and thought they were finally ready.

"Of course! Thank you!" Hermione said, while both boys nodded fervently.

"Excellent. I've already looked over your schedules and you all have free periods on Tuesdays and Thursdays, therefore, those will be the training days. It just so happens I also have a free period at that time. I will warn you now, however, that this will be a tedious and difficult journey. I suggest reading up on the subject. We will meet this Tuesday to go over the basics," McGonagall said. "Oh, and please don't talk about this to anyone else."

"Can you believe it? I'm so excited! I wonder what my animal form will be!" Hermione said once they were in the hallway again.

"Probably a bookworm," Draco said in an offhand voice.

"Oh, you're hilarious. Whatever mine will be, I'll never stop laughing if you come out a ferret!" she said, while Harry roared with laughter and Draco glared.

XXX

"Morning, Hermione," Draco greeted her as she walked out of her room Monday morning.

Yawning, Hermione waved at him before making her way to the bathroom. 15 minutes later, she walked out looking clean, and dressed in her school robes.

"Hey, I have something for you," he told her as she grabbed her book bag. Walking over to her, he waited until she opened her hand before dropping a necklace into it.

"Draco! Thank you! It's wonderful!" she told him. The necklace was made of what looked like tightly woven hemp, interlaced with strands of silver. Hanging from the middle was a silver chimera about the size of a muggle nickel.

"Thanks; I made it. The necklace part is interlaced with strands of titanium, even though they look silver. The titanium is stronger, and hemp is very strong, so the necklace is almost indestructible. If not, there's a charm on it for that. Also, I carved the chimera charm out of platinum, which took some time, let me tell you. I figured it would be funny thing to put on it, and platinum doesn't react badly to potions," he explained.

"You made it? Wow, Draco. This is great. How do I put it on?" she asked, confused by the clasp. Two metal ends were stuck together, and at first she thought they might be magnets, but they refused to come apart.

"You have to tap the necklace with your wand and say 'unlock', or else it won't come apart. I did it so that it won't fall off at any point when making potions or anything. You can also shower with it on, so you never really have to take it off. And when you want to put it on, you just touch the ends together and they seal like a magnet. I have the matching bracelet. I thought it looked a little manlier," he told her, smirking, and held out his right arm to show off his piece of jewelry. It was woven of the same hemp and titanium strands, but connected on either sides of his chimera rather than have his charm dangle from it.

"Oh, most definitely," she assured him. "So, what happened with you and Harry on Saturday?"

They were now walking towards the Great Hall for breakfast and Draco looked around before casting the muffliato.

"I know you know what happened, so don't play dumb. As for what's happening now, your guess is as good as mine. He didn't really talk to me all day yesterday, and he isn't waiting for us this morning. I think he feels awkward. I don't know what to do," Draco said, looking crestfallen.

"Give it some time; this is new to him too. At least you embraced what you felt some time ago. Harry is obviously trying to cope with it now. He's going to need some help. And at least you don't have to worry about the student body talking about your affair with the Potions Master, and getting kicked out of class for it," she told him as they neared the Great Hall and the students around it all looked at them.

Muttering the counter charm to the muffliato, Draco agreed with her.

"Yeah, you're right. Your situation is much worse," he said. She had explained the probability of getting kicked out of potions to Harry and Draco as they walked up to the castle the day before, and both agreed with Snape that it had a high likelihood. "But no matter what, you got us," he finished as they walked through the doors and almost every head to look at her.

Rolling her eyes, she thanked Draco, and walked over to where Harry sat at his usual place.

"Ready for Potions?" he asked as soon as she sat down, an evil grin on her face.

"This is going to be horrible, Harry," she pouted. Looking up at the staff, she noticed Charlie walking in and gave him a timid wave, smiling when he winked and waved back.

When they had both eaten, and Hermione could no longer stall, they both hitched up their bags and headed towards the doors.

Draco caught up as they passed through the doors, and flung an arm around Hermione's shoulders.

"This should be fun, eh?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

"Nice bracelet, Draco," Harry said, eyeballing the glint of silver that had caught his eye, and then the charm hanging from Hermione's necklace.

Pulling his arm back to himself, Draco easily replied, "I made it, and made Hermione a matching necklace as well. I, uh, made an extra bracelet in case you wanted one, but I wasn't sure how you felt on jewelry." He reached in his pocket and produced a bracelet identical to his own, except in place of the chimera there was a bold, capital letter H.

Moving to Harry's side on the other side of Hermione, Draco showed how the clasp opened in the middle of the H, and how to lock and unlock it. Harry held it up in front of his face and cocked his head at it, as though considering it. He tried muttering out of the corner of his mouth to Draco, and Hermione tried very hard to pretend not to notice and faked a sneeze and started clearing her throat, feeling like she should give them a moment. Whatever Harry had asked, Draco nodded and leaned in to whisper something in Harry's ear, making Harry break into a broad grin. Finally, Harry put the bracelet on, and they resumed their track to Potions.

XXX

"Ridiculous! Absolutely outrageous!" Hermione yelled, pacing up and down her commons area. It was lunch time, and the three friends had chosen to eat in the room rather than make an appearance in the Great Hall.

Earlier, the possibility of being kicked out of Potions was made into reality when at least 5 students complained of her getting unfair treatment. Finally when the fifth student had said something, not even bothering to say it under their breath, she had flipped out and started yelling at them. The result was a night in detention. Ten minutes later, Dumbledore had shown up and requested her and Professor Snape give him a few minutes of their time. Out in the hall, Dumbledore proceeded to tell her that it would be best if she took private lessons with Snape to earn her Potions grade, and they would spread it that she was taking Potions lessons with Dumbledore.

"I mean, I knew it would probably happen, but still!" Hermione said, for what seemed like the tenth time.

Her rant was interrupted by Dumbledore's voice coming from the fireplace, and they turned to see his head floating in the flames.

"Excuse me, Ms. Ganger, but I think you should come to my office; Mr. Potter and Malfoy as well. I believe we have found a key component to your problem with Malfoy Sr. I have allowed floo access to my office this one time. Please, step on through, all of you."

When they arrived in Dumbledore's office, they saw Charlie and Snape standing on both sides of the fireplace and Dumbledore back behind his desk. For once, Draco didn't transfigure a bean bag chair; he seemed too nervous and preferred to stand like the two professor's. Hermione had immediately sunk into the chair in front of the desk and Harry had chosen the seat next to her.

Getting right to the point, Dumbledore looked Hermione in the eye. "Ms. Granger, it seems there was a sort of prophecy made that is making Lucius act this way." At Harry's snort, Dumbledore paused and looked at him.

Harry's face got red, and he apologized. "Sorry, Professor, it's just…there always seems to be a prophecy."

"Yes, I know. However, this is slightly different. This one was available to the public." At their confused looks, he continued to explain. "An old Seer named Tangio Santos wrote a book about 100 years ago. In it seemed to be a collection of poems. It wasn't until around 50 years later that it was discovered that many of these so called poems were suspiciously close to happenings that were occurring all over. Many muggleborns compared it to the writings of the Mayans or Copernicus. I recently discovered that Lucius has a copy of this book; Professor Snape said he remembered seeing it in the Malfoy library. Santos only copied down 15 poems; 14 of which have all come true in some form, most being before your time. I have searched through it, seeing if it could hold anything, and I believe I found something."

Pulling out a dusty tome, Dumbledore opened to a page he had bookmarked and began to read.

"The nameless foe will meet his end,

a broken body which cannot mend.

Ignorant of era not over yet,

the darkest powers are still to get.

Pale Death lurks in safety's walls,

hunting the heart which has taken all.

A plot to use the lioness's blood,

to suck the power from the mud,

will make the evil grow in might,

and so begins the endless night.

Only when heart is no longer hers,

will the power settle scores.

The magic within must be embraced,

Unbeknownst will surely raze,

for the magic both know not of,

will once again reign above."

"We've broken the prophecy down trying to decipher it. Normally, prophecies don't rhyme and they tell more detail. This one, however, is rather cryptic," Snape said, breaking the silence that had followed the reading.

"I thought it sounded weird. I mean, the one about me was pretty straight forward: I'd be born in July, my parents had defied Voldemort three times, he'd mark me, etcetera etcetera. But this…this is different," Harry said.

"Quite. Now, we obviously know that the 'nameless foe' is Voldemort, since he was called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and his broken body was beyond repair. Pale Death we're guessing to be Lucius since he has the trademark Malfoy white blond hair and was a Death Eater, and he has his spy lurking in Hogwarts, meaning 'safety's walls'," Dumbledore added.

"And seeing how he blames me for losing everything, I must be the heart he hunts," Hermione said.

"Being a Gryffindor, you would also be a lioness," Draco interjected.

"What does he need her blood for?" Charlie asked.

"There are many…dark spells…which use blood," Snape said. "It is our guess that Lucius has found one to use Ms. Granger's blood to make his own powers greater."

"He wants to take Voldemort's spot," Harry said in comprehension.

"That sounds like him," Draco murmured, starting to pace by the fire. "And of course, it makes sense with the first part when it said that the powers are still there to get."

"And of course, since I'm a muggleborn, he will need to 'suck the power' from the dirt in my blood," Hermione said scathingly.

"What about the rest, though? What power needs to be embraced? And what power do they not know of?" Harry asked.

"We don't know yet, Harry. We can only guess. So far, we've figured that it would be the power he tries to extract. If performed wrong, and not embraced, then it could destroy him. And as for the power, neither Ms. Granger or Lucius know of the power that Voldemort had, seeing how he was one of the most powerful in history," Dumbledore said, with sadness in his eyes.

"But it said raise," Harry interjected.

"Not r-a-i-s-e, Harry. R-a-z-e. Raze; meaning to destroy," Hermione said in a monotone, looking straight ahead. "Demolish, annihilate, wreck, devastate."

A heartbeat of silence was heard, and then Charlie asked the question that had been plaguing him since he heard the poem. "And…what of the part about her heart no longer belonging to her?"

For this, no one had an answer, and Hermione finally succumbed to tears.