The dining room was rather large for a 'small' room. The table could have easily sat twelve, and there was more than enough room to maneuver on all sides of it. Despite that, it was surprisingly cozy with only the three of them eating at one side of the table. Harry knew that in other times, there would have been servants behind each seat; but right now, the elf didn't even show up with the food. Rather, the food popped onto the table Hogwarts style, and they continued their silly discussion of formal versus flower versus herb gardens and ate companionably. Harry was fairly certain he saw Snape smile at his crème brûlée when it appeared after the entrees disappeared, but it vanished almost instantly, so he couldn't be 100 percent sure.
After dinner, Draco led Snape to a comfortable study with a crackling fire (not the dark library from earlier) and showed him where the brandy was. Harry and Draco left him with a good book, and Draco gave Harry a tour of the rest of the Manor. They started in the nursery suite. Draco had to explain that it included his room and classroom until he got his Hogwarts letter and moved to the heir suite. This sounded oddly formal to Harry, but he really liked the rooms anyway. The nursery suite had its own room, bathroom, playroom, and classroom. They were all done in soft blues, and each had a fireplace. The bedroom included a ceiling charm like the Great Hall that mirrored the outside sky.
After the nursery, Draco took Harry to a few of his favorite spots — the window seat at the end of the portrait hall, the music room, and the morning room (which he said they should really visit tomorrow morning to see it as it was intended).
Overall, Harry had a much better picture of Draco's childhood by the time they rejoined Snape in the study. Harry sat at Draco's feet while he and Snape set up the chessboard. Part of his mind followed their game. The other was imaging Draco as a small child in this house. Harry could see why he liked his home — he had obviously had plenty of toys and books, and the house itself was beautiful. The rooms that Draco showed Harry didn't have any of that dark energy that so pervaded the library and were much more warm and comfortable than the foyer they had entered through. However, he couldn't help but notice how far away the nursery was from the master's and mistress' suites (in a different wing entirely). He had also noticed the casual mention of the separate suites for Lucius and Narcissa. Draco obviously thought that was normal, and it could easily be in his old circle of friends. Harry's only experiences (the Dursleys and Weasleys) was, obviously, much different.
Harry shook off his maudlin thoughts as a crash from the chessboard alerted him to Draco losing his knight. Its companion gave Draco a dressing down for losing the piece, and Harry couldn't help but laugh at the serious tone coming out in a soft squeak. Draco had explained earlier that some long ago Malfoy had cursed the white pieces to sound like mice after he lost a few too many times. Since Snape had, of course, chosen black, Draco's pieces were hard to take seriously no matter how good their advice was.
By the time they went to bed, Harry was giggling and imitating Draco's bishop as he was taken out of the game. Snape may have been rolling his eyes, but Harry had caught his lips quirking a number of times at their theatrics during the game. Plus, Draco was laughing in that way he rarely did, which meant all of his defenses were down. It was carefree and happy and only made Harry laugh more.
#
The next morning, Harry woke earlier than Draco. He showered and dressed in the clothes that McGonagall had flooed over after dinner the night before. Then, he left a note for Draco and found his way to the morning room to enjoy the winter sun reflecting off the buttery yellow walls and warm woods of his comfortable chair and footstool. He sat back to think about his new insight about his powers.
Obviously, the presence of the four elements in his vision helped him achieve a much deeper trance and control over his sense of magic. He had already started to think that the actual presence of the four elements might be even better. Then Harry had a dream last night that gave him an insight into how to do that wherever he went. In the dream, Harry had been facing an unknown enemy. His wand had been taken away, and he was trying to figure out how to defend himself. His hand had gone up to a pendant that was around his neck, and he had felt a rush of energy and power. As the dream ended before the confrontation began, Harry saw a close-up of the pendant. It was a circle broken into four chambers. One quadrant contained water, another soil, the third looked empty, and the fourth seemed to include some kind of eternally burning fire. He wasn't sure what the trick of that was, but he knew he had to make himself that pendant as soon as he could manage it.
It could save his life.
#
After breakfast, Harry stood in the library and tried to regain the level of trance that he had achieved yesterday morning. The next he was aware, he was coming awake with a hand around a book that he was sure he had looked at two or three times yesterday afternoon. Despite that, he was sure he now held the diary in his hand.
"This is it."
"You're certain, Mr. Potter?"
"Yes, sir. I know the spells we cast on it yesterday didn't reveal it, but I'm sure. Could Lucius have used a spell that would only be undone with a very specific counter spell?"
"It is what I would do if I wanted to hide something in plain sight. I have some books in my private library that might be useful in breaking it."
"Right then, let's get back to the castle and start some research." Draco looked calm and happy. Harry was glad Draco was ready to go back to Hogwarts and hadn't wanted to stay for a longer visit to his childhood home. He simply couldn't shake the feeling that a longer visit might put their errand in danger of being found out.
#
When they got back to Hogwarts, Snape took possession of the book and told Draco and Harry he would report in to the Headmaster and give him the book for safekeeping. Harry and Draco headed to Gryffindor to let Ron and Hermione know they were back. Luckily, they had all decided on a cover story before leaving for the Manor, and Harry didn't have to worry about coming up with one since his brain was still feeling a bit muddled from the effort this morning.
"Hey, guys!" Ron called to them as soon as they climbed through the portrait. He and Hermione were the only ones in the common room. "Get your business all sorted, Malfoy?"
"Yeah, it took a little longer than I expected, but it's all sorted now." Snape, Harry, and Draco had decided that the less Ron and Hermione knew the better. They didn't want to leave a trail that someone else could follow to the fact that they were going to the Malfoy's to find an important artifact or something important to the war. Instead, they had decided on the vague "family business" and were counting on Ron and Hermione's politeness in not asking for further details.
"So, what's the Manor like, Harry?"
"Well, Draco would be better to ask that, don't you think?"
"Nah, he's seen it so much, he takes it for granted. Tell me what you saw."
Harry had to admit that Ron had a point. Hermione put down her book and waited expectantly, and even Draco looked mildly intrigued. He probably wanted to hear what Harry's impressions were. So, for the next 15 minutes, Harry described what he had seen of Malfoy Manor while sitting curled against Draco's side. His brain was still feeling a bit muddled, but being forced to focus on his memory of the Manor and describe it clearly actually helped to pull it back to functioning order.
"Well, enough from me. What have you guys been doing the last few days?"
"I've been planning some Quidditch strategies for the spring. Hermione, of course, has been reading great, heavy, dusty tomes. I don't know that she would even come up for food and rest if I didn't remind her."
"So, about usual?" Harry smirked at Ron's description while Hermione huffed in mock indignation.
"Exactly." Now Hermione was swinging a throw pillow at Ron's head, and he was laughing and ducking. Gosh, it was good to be home.
To mollify Hermione, Harry turned to her. "Find out anything new and interesting about Harry Potter, the walking anomaly?"
"Actually, I did. Did you know, Harry, that you could do certain magic without spells?" At Harry interrogative look, she continued, "As you know, you can see or sense magic in a way most wizards don't. Because of that, you could possibly see certain spells and manipulate them or undo them. There is speculation that some of the best curse breakers have a marginal sensitivity to the types of things you see, and that gives them a greater instinct for figuring out which curses are on things. Then, they use their extensive knowledge to undo it. You should be able to undo a curse without knowing exactly what it is, just by manipulating what you see in the magic."
"Cool!" Ron sounded impressed.
Harry had to admit that he was as well. Mostly, he was trying to keep calm because he immediately thought of the spell on the diary and started to wonder if he could skip the research phase. After all, they couldn't bring their most brilliant researcher in on this one, and Harry was basically pants at finding things in books when he didn't know exactly what he was looking for.
"You said 'certain kinds of spells.' Like what?"
"Well, obviously, you would be especially good at anything having to do with manipulating the four elements. But, honestly, the person who wrote the book I got it from was hearing it third-hand. He knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who was an elemental. All of the books are like that because most elementals try to keep it pretty quiet. So, it could be almost anything. I think it's another one of those things that will just take some experimentation to figure out where your limits are."
"Yeah, we'll have to think of something. Ron, do you think you could contact Bill and ask him to stop by sometime during the holidays while he's in the country? That way, if I experiment and it goes wrong, we can have a trained curse breaker to back me up and minimize any damage."
"Sure. That'd be great. I've been wishing I had a chance to see him anyway. He's only going to be in England for a week around New Year's, but I'll see if he can squeeze us in when he gets here."
"Let me check with the Headmaster first to make sure it's ok he knows as much as we would have to explain to him. Anything else of interest in those dusty tomes?" Harry smirked at Hermione.
"Well, there was something in one of the older books, but the language was really obscure. In any case, it led me to believe that you would be stronger when you were surrounded by the elements in as raw a form as possible."
"Well, that I had kind of guessed recently." Harry realized he couldn't explain about his meditations at the Manor, so he decided to fall back on a bit of vagueness. "Sometime recently, I realized I got a deeper, more effective meditation exercise if I included representations of all of the four elements in the picture in my head. Plus, I had a dream last night that I think was a bit more than a regular dream."
"You didn't tell me about a dream. Have you been holding back on me, Potter?" Draco didn't sound genuinely upset, but Harry knew he needed to explain a little anyway.
"Well, I woke up pretty early. By the time you got up, you had that business to handle. So, I figured we could talk about it later, and then I forgot." Draco was not Slytherin for nothing and understood the hidden messages and dropped the issue.
"So, what happened in the dream?" Hermione, as usual, was all business.
"I was in some sort of battle situation. I had lost my wand, my enemy had the upper hand, and I couldn't figure out what to do. Then, I put my hand on this pendant around my neck and felt this surge of power. I just knew I would be OK."
"So what was in the pendant?" Hermione sounded way too excited for such a simple story; she was close to breathless.
"It had four quadrants, and each one had an element in it."
"How could…?"
"Hermione, give me a minute to explain. So. One quadrant had dirt in it – earth. Another had a bit of water; that one's obvious. One looked empty, so I guess that would be air. The last was fire, but I really don't know how to make a tiny little eternal fire to enclose in a pendant."
"Oh, I can show you how. That part is easy. The pendant, though, that's brilliant, Harry. You'll always have all four elements with you. You can tap into that power if you need to anywhere. That's great!"
"Yeah, mate, that's one hell of a dream. You getting help from some higher power now – sending you dreams?"
"I honestly don't know where the dreams are coming from."
"Dreams?" Draco looked concerned as he emphasized the 'S.'
"Yeah, I had a dream right before Christmas that got me practicing with locating certain types of magic even when I couldn't see the objects." Harry looked at Draco significantly.
"Hmmm. That sounds interesting. Any luck?"
"Luck! Malfoy, it was brilliant. Too bad you weren't there. Harry found me wearing his cloak after figuring out where I was hiding from a floor away." Ron enthusiastically started telling Draco something he had already heard from Harry. Harry consoled himself with the thought of his plans not getting out to the wrong person. Plus, Draco hadn't heard it from Ron's perspective or in nearly this much detail. Harry made a mental note to ask Hermione to show him the relevant sections of the books she had just mentioned and settled down to listen to Ron for a bit.
#
Harry was feeling much more refreshed the next day. He had gone to bed early – pretty much right after supper and woken feeling bright and happy and like he had a plan. Despite the sneaking suspicion he was turning into Hermione, he gave into the driving urge to write it down and work out some of the finer points. He knew that the germ was swimming around in his head, but it had been impossible to work out the details while he was busy talking to his friends yesterday.
Talk to Dumbledore and Snape about search at Manor and new insight into powers and link to elementals provided by meditation. Key to control of new powers?
Tell them about dream and plans to make pendant.
Ask Hermione to help on research to make glass and have her show me fire spell. There must be a fast wizarding way to make glass from sand. If I can make my own pendant, it will only be more powerful. Plus I can make it exactly as I want.
Elements in their natural quadrants: North earth; South fire; West water; East Air. Include appropriate colors or stones?
In the margins was a small drawing looking something like a pie. Rather than cutting the circle with a cross with the lines pointing directly N, S, E, and W, he had bisected it with an X so the quadrants it created were nestled firmly in the appropriate directions.
Tell them about Hermione's research (both pieces) and suggest bringing Bill to castle for some hands-on curse breaking. Maybe he could bring a few relatively harmless objects and/or Snape could curse a few things to act as test subjects.
If that works, try other basic magic without incantations – Leviosa, simple transfiguration, and any other suggestions.
If any success, try to break charm or whatever on diary.
Try to get diary to show way to other objects of importance.
He wasn't planning on holding on to the note for long, but it still was a good idea to be careful about certain details.
If that works, track them down, store them until we figure out how to destroy them. If not, track down two Dumbledore thinks he knows location of, store, then destroy. Convince Dumbledore that any expeditions to find objects should include all three of us (Dumbledore, Snape, and myself). The more heads to figure out possible curses the better.
Continue looking for Peter. If captured, interrogate about objects – what they are and where they are stored.
Harry looked with satisfaction at his list. It felt good to write some of it down. It felt good to have a handle on a few things again. He thought it might be good to hold on to the list for a bit. It might help keep him on point while talking to Dumbledore and Snape. He'd have to code it or ward it somehow in case anyone else got hold of it before he had a chance to destroy it. That was easy enough to do though, he thought, as he pulled out his wand, especially with a bit of elemental power at your beck and call. No one would be reading this note.
#
He made an appointment to speak with Dumbledore when he saw him at breakfast. He and Snape were to meet in the Headmaster's office in a few hours. That worked perfectly for Harry as it gave him time to review the relevant sections of Hermione's books as well as get a few books from the library on glassmaking.
The references in Hermione's books didn't provide much more information than Hermione had in her summary. Still, it was good to read it firsthand just in case something came up in the future. With a little help from Hermione, who knew the library backwards and forwards, he found some books that should help him in making the pendant and he even had a chance to practice the nifty portable, water-proof, fire spell that Hermione had used back in second year to set a fire up in the Myrtle's bathroom when they needed to make Polyjuice. The trick would be making sure there was a hole in that quadrant so the fire continued to have oxygen to burn. Harry was really unsure how he was going to keep the contents of the different quadrants separate from each other. But that was a problem for another day.
He quickly lost track of time while practicing the charm and had to jog up to the Headmaster's office for his appointment. The good news was that he made it on time. It was bad form to show up late to an appointment you had requested after all. The next set of good news was that both the Headmaster and Professor Snape felt his plan was a good one. Dumbledore decided to disguise Bill's visit by having the entire Weasley clan come for a visit. Harry and Bill could slip out of the family gathering for a bit and meet up with Snape in his dungeons.
"After all," he said with a twinkle, "Ron has missed spending Christmas with his family. The least we can do is facilitate their desire to be together for New Year's." He promised he would be able to communicate securely with Bill and explain their needs.
In addition, both were very impressed with the pendant idea. Snape, in fact, thought he should make more than one. He also recommended Harry spend as much time as he could spare practicing using his powers. He was of the opinion that more practice might make the process of falling into a trance unnecessary – or at least not as time consuming.
Harry spent the next few days either working out how to put together his pendant (pendants?) and practicing his magic-sight, as they had started calling it. He now had a marginal awareness of his surroundings and had cut the time it took to activate it to just two minutes. He was sure more practice would only improve both of these aspects.
He had, indeed, found a way to make glass directly from sand, but first he had to purify the sand or else the resulting glass wouldn't be very stable (or attractive). The beauty of the wizarding method was that he could instantly make it into the exact shape that he desired and it was as durable as Pyrex. After much discussion of methods of getting the elements inserted into an already completed pie shape that always ended up with water oozing out of the hole used to fill that quadrant and no ideas of how to insert fire into a tiny hole, they decided to try something else. He would start by making a open ended pie, insert the objects and then make a top and instantly seal it to the bottom half with the heat necessary to melt the sand into glass. After all, if it didn't work out, he could try again. There was tons of sand down by the lake and it only took a few hours to purify it. He was planning on purifying enough for a few pendants the first time. Either he would need it all to try making one a few different times until he got it right, or he'd use the excess to make a few extra pendants.
#
Sorry for the delay between chapters.