As the night fell again, 3 of the Slytherdors were not in the tower, but in the room of requirement. Crabbe had a brainwave that caused Pansy to kiss him rather passionately, then she realised it was Crabbe and retreated to the bathroom again. Crabbe, Draco and Ron were in a huge room full of shelf-upon-shelf of books that had been hidden around Hogwarts. They figured it would be the best place to find a book on soul expressions and Snape did say something about this room once, Draco was sure of it.

So there they were, the 3 of them, scanning the book shelves and grabbing anything that might contain the antidote, if they made it, everyone could be healed but Draco; that would certainly make life simpler. Draco's singing was not as bad as Pansy's constant talking and Harry's obsessive caring. Draco had almost sat on a quill a few hours ago only to have Harry dive across the room and push him onto the floor to save his bottom. He had thanked him politely as possible through gritted teeth. So Draco was desperate to get rid of it because to put it simply, Harry was annoying him to hell. He'd been obsessing over Draco's hair gel telling him it would thin his hair, making sure they all ate breakfast and he had taken over Hermione's morning rounds of uniform and homework checks. It seemed everyone was getting worse.

Pansy had been doing really outrageous things, the lolly incident and kissing Crabbe had been some of the sane ones. That potion was messing with Pansy's mind and the spell was definitely making Harry paranoid. Draco previously had suspicions about Blaise having an expression, well if he did it was love because all he did was hug Harry, hold Harry's hand and get all protective over Harry. Harry this, Harry that, yada yada yada, it was driving Draco mad. So that's why he was here searching through a mountain of books with Crabbe and Ron, two of the only people without expressions. It was heaven.

Back in the tower Harry and Goyle were slowly as possible lowering the A2 piece of parchment into the cold Veritaserum in the cauldron, they turned it over so both sides were covered in it then used a hovering spell waiting for it to dry. They knew it would take a few days but it was essential, one of the main components of the map they were guessing. All they could do now was wait.

Blaise was sitting in the window with his legs dangling out, waiting for Falcon; he should be back as it had almost been a full day. True to his knowledge of Draco's owl, he noticed a dark speck of grey flying towards him. He smiled at the owl, he was secretly jealous of Draco for owning such a beautiful creature, he was a dark grey and white eagle owl. Blaise was in awe watching him fly. He remembered Draco telling him about when he had got him, for his 10th birthday. He was only a baby, small enough to fit in Draco's palm apparently, that way, he would know Draco well enough to be able to go to Hogwarts and Draco would have a familiar owl that wouldn't die or take orders from anyone else, Lucius had always been paranoid. But Falcon was a bit of a rebel like his owner and listened to all of Draco's close friends.

Blaise had to hold out his arm because Falcon couldn't fly into the room, his wings wouldn't fit in the window and he scratched Blaise's arm a bit but he didn't really mind that much. Harry heard the owl rather than seen him and walked over to his boyfriend who was petting him fondly. Harry untied the letter and sat on the bed to read it to the few members in the room.

Children,

When I received your letter I was very surprised to see such a strange combination of students all together trying to sort out this soul expression problem. When I thought about it I realised you are all selfless children. I cannot stop you doing anything you have your hearts set on doing as I myself at that age would not listen to the logic of an adult. So I wish you the best of luck and would like to give you some advice and information. This should be kept between the 7 of you.

The order was informed of Professor Snape's disappearance and have yet to get a search warrant to raid his house. It is, after all, a private property. It is clear you should be able to get onto it because of Draco's connection with Professor Snape.

Hermione? I wasn't aware Hermione had gone missing but I haven't been the headquarters for the past few days, I was recovering from the moon. I'm deeply sorry this has happened and I understand you must all be distraught at the moment, especially with your soul expressions. (What a strange thing for you all to be infected with!) And Minerva? I am just as shocked but I'm sure you will find them all and bring them to safety and yourselves!

I have no idea on how you planning on getting there but I'm guessing flooing is the best bet, I have enclosed details of a spell that will open a fireplace and enable flooing as I don't want you going to the village. The spell I have enclosed is specific to only a select amount of people, this means once you have flooed in, only you can return with certain people, a strand of hair is needed to activate (see next page).

The map? Well, I did vow to my dying day not to tell but this is an emergency and seems Harry is family and the owner now, so I guess I'll pass on the secret. You need some Veritaserum, a monitoring spell, permanent ink, invisible ink, an identity potion, a drop of each of your blood and a binding spell, a tracking potion and once his is applied, (in no particular order) you need to dip it in lukewarm water containing a phoenix feather (might want to see Dumbledore) and dextrose extract. Leave it to dry, NATURALLY; then unfortunately you need to map out the lines, this cannot be done by hand, you must hover the quill over the parchment and send someone into the house with a tracking charm connected to them and link it to the quill, it will draw out all the wards and rooms, any passages, and even passwords. Good luck! I'm hoping I have saved you a lot of thinking, after all it took us three years to perfect that map!

If there's anything else I can do, do not hesitate to write, I hope to hear from you all at least once a week, please update me on your progress. I hope you are all well and I hope I have helped you a considerable amount.

Best wishes to you all.

Remus (Mssr. Moony)

Blaise smiled at the letter and hugged Harry close. They were one step closer to fixing it all. One day soon, it would all be okay again.

For the next three days none of the Slytherdors slept apart from Pansy as she was doing all of their homework because they didn't have time. They were drinking two energy potions a day and all had cheering charms on them, apart from Pansy, they didn't need a repeat of the lolly incident.

Draco wasn't really adjusting to Hermione not being there and other students had noticed her absence. Harry and Ron were getting questioned and Draco had to listen to her being insulted by the Slytherins all day. And what made matters worse is they were also being quizzed why that weren't in the dorms. Draco was asked by Theodore if they'd become deatheaters and were at meetings, this had really shocked the Slytherin as it was the latest rumour, he had been wondering why the boys kept saying 'well done' to him; and the girls were all suddenly flocking him; well more than usual. So the days were full of acting and forced smiles. But when it hit 8 o'clock they all worked nonstop and had found every spell and had completed every potion they needed for the map, by the 2nd night the map was finished but needed to be dipped into the water and set. Then it just needed to be drawn, they had agreed not to worry about that until the time came.

It was on the third day, a Sunday, Draco had managed to find a reason to talk to Dumbledore about a made up problem and pick up a fallen phoenix feather out of Fawkes cage casually. He talked about how soft it was for a moment and Dumbledore not realising what Draco was doing had said he could keep it. Draco thanked him with a smile but inside he was smirking. Now all they needed to do was get some dextrose extract.

They had one problem; they didn't know what it was. They were all sat (including Pansy) in front of the fire on the Sunday night, reading the back of potions books looking in the ingredients index. It couldn't be found anywhere. It was Goyle who found it in the end, in a dictionary.

"Guys got it."

"Funny." Draco muttered, he really thought it wouldn't be found in a normal dictionary. Goyle tutted, he hated how Draco thought he was better than him, he was so stuck up. So he wanted to prove him wrong.

"Dextrose: Sugar in fruit and honey: a sugar produced during cellular metabolism in plant and animal tissue. It is found in many fruits, especially grapes, and is a major component of honey and corn syrup. Also called dextroglucose." Everyone looked up at Crabbe who smirked then declared he was going to bed because he was skiving school to go shopping tomorrow. He would never get grapes from the house elves; they never had fruit like that at school.

Draco smiled at everyone. "One step closer!" He jumped up and pulled his shirt over his head, everyone guessed he was going to bed and followed his lead, it was the earliest they had slept in ages and the energy potions kept them all hyper.

They ended up talking until early in the morning about anything and everything. Blaise spoke about the pressure of his mother and her many dead husbands and how he believed that is probably why he was obsessed with not having an arranged marriage, he was scared he would be like one of them men.

Ron talked about how he hated being the youngest brother, everything was a constant pressure to try and impress his parents because everyone had already done everything. He explained how he hated being poor and how any achievements he had were shadowed over by his brothers. Draco found himself understanding except he said he hated being rich and Draco and Ron had a whole discussion about this for around 45 minutes really relating to one another.

Goyle talked about his ill mother, she had fallen ill with something unknown and he wished for her to go to St Mungo's but she refused. Draco's heart really went out to Goyle and he sit and listened and told Goyle he should make his mother go. He explained he had lost his sister Faylen; she had only been 19 when she died and Pansy, Blaise and Ron who hadn't known Draco before Hogwarts were surprised at this knowledge as they hadn't even known he had a sister. They had felt even worse when he said it was only last year she died. But he reassured them that was how Faylen had wanted it; she didn't want loads of people knowing she was disgracing the Malfoy name because she obviously had weak blood. Saying those words out loud now felt so wrong to Draco.

Crabbe had talked about the pressures of his father being a deatheater and how he'd often take his anger out on him, everyone in the room apart from Harry and Ron could relate to that, and they was surprised as soon as it was voiced a whole debate started on it, there was an actual roar of sound from everyone as soon as it had been said. It seemed it was so normal between them to talk about deatheaters. The boys had known the Slytherins parents were deatheaters but they hadn't realised they had disagreed with it. Harry saw everyone in the room in a new light, even Blaise.

Harry talked about the pressures of being expected to save the world, and of how the muggle world worked, how he had believed that was all that existed until 5 short years ago. Draco and Crabbe had found all the muggle things extremely fascinating and he had gone over the concept of how pictures don't move several times, and the telephone had been something to explain over twice.

Pansy had talked about how she felt pressured into her arranged marriage like Blaise and talked about her finding a prince charming, she wanted a boyfriend but was scared about the sex issue, she wasn't allowed, it cancelled her marriage and if that happened she be disowned. She had asked if Blaise and Harry had sex and they admitted they did, she turned to Draco, not asking the question, but it was in the open. Ron and Harry immediately stared daggers into him. Draco almost cowered.

"No we don't have sex, I want to wait until I'm ready, until we both are really. I'm in no rush to lose my virginity." He said honestly, the tension flew out the window after that, Draco was sure he would have been murdered if he'd joked about it.

Draco wasn't sure what to talk about, so he talked about loads of things, he retold the whole tale of how he and Hermione had met, he told them all about Faylen, and how the Malfoy name was such a burden. And by the time they were asleep they had all learned some very valuable things about each other, and in the morning when they woke, there would be a greater understanding a greater respect, for they all truly for once, did respect each other, Hermione would be coming back to a huge surprise!

They woke in their usual manor only each drinking half a potion each and laughing their way through lessons high on them. And Goyle true to his word had sneaked into Hogsmaid and got 3 packets of grapes. When he sat down eating then at lunch Pansy smacked his hand away and started lecturing him about eating there ingredients.

Harry and Ron noticed the grapes from across the hall and they all couldn't stop smiling, the map just needed to be dipped, they could finish it tonight. Draco's grin could be seen easily all the way from the Gryffindor table and Harry was so happy for Draco, he knew he missed Hermione like mad. And Harry, even though he hadn't really mentioned it, was so worried for her. He was just hoping she hadn't been taken to Voldemort directly. They hadn't spoken of this. But there was a huge chance she may not even be alive. And Harry was sure that this thought hadn't crossed Draco's mind.

Back at the Slytherin table Draco was humming under his breath again, something he hadn't done in a while, and Blaise was thrilled at this. They all turned at a strange sound coming from the end of the table and then they all shook their heads at what was going on. A first year was threatening to kill himself because a girl had turned him down, that was far from funny, it was just the fact he was going to do it by jumping off the table. The boy jumped screaming as he twisted his ankle.

"Bloody soul expressions." Were muttered several places around the hall.

It was 3:15 and everyone had finished their lessons and immediately they went racing to the tower and entered whispering the password to the dragon; that was for once, awake. They all scrambled in giggling. They went all running over to the fireplace and tipped water in the cauldron and lighted the fire. They waited patiently around it waiting for it to warm.

"This is it!" Draco squealed. "I can't wait to see her beautiful face! Oh she's breathtaking but so much more; she walks in the room, your lungs close, making you never want to breathe again!" Draco sang happily, he resisted jumping on the couches.

They all smiled at him, Ron stirred the water in the cauldron slowly, and they 'aquamenti'ed the fire, dropping the feather and the grapes in at the same time.

"Do you think it will work?"

"I bloody well hope so." Ron mumbled, "We've worked so hard, I didn't even know I could work like that, you've remolded my head, might start studying or something!" they all laughed. They crossed their fingers as they dripped it in and it glowed a faint blue, then went back to normal. They used a hovering spell like before and left it to dry.

The hours ticked by and none of them went to dinner, far too excited, they had been waiting for this forever. And finally, at half past six it was dry. They all took it down as if it was a diamond, and placed it just as preciously on the table.

They stared in silence at it. No-one daring to move, they knew what was coming next.

"So who's going to go?" Pansy asked finally. They all exchanged looks nervously it was clear nobody wanted to go with it unsafe. Nobody answered. They sat awkwardly in silence for the next minutes, until the answer smacked them in the face, or rather jumped onto the new map.

Blaise and Draco's face instantly broke out into a slow smirk. Pansy's baby sweet voice innocently filled the room as he cooed over there solution.

"Ohhh Crookshanks …"

Fanfiction is by Faith Valconbridge . 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 infringement is intended.

Songs included in this chapter are: "Gallery" by Mario Adrián Vázquez