Used the movie version for some of the salient plot points in this chapter!
He must've heard her incorrectly, because there was simply no way in Merlin's saggy balls that he had been the Master of the Elder Wand! His gaze narrowed at the smug look on his witch's face and he simply couldn't help the sneer that spread over his countenance as he stood up and paced throughout his room—trying to fucking comprehend just how something like that might've actually happened.
Hermione, for her part, just sat there watching Draco in amusement as she saw the emotions flitter across his face. There was shock of course... then disbelief, anger, resentment...more disbelief...contemplation...denial and then finally curiosity as he glared at her with lifted eyebrows and his patented Malfoy sneer.
"Explain." The word came out a bit harsher than he'd intended, but to his witch's credit she didn't take offense...she just patted the comforter on the bed where he'd been sitting five minutes ago with an expectant look.
Draco couldn't help it—he rolled his eyes skyward but complied with the silent request and once he was situated comfortably, his witch grabbed his hands and brought them to her mouth in succession—trying to soothe his prickly disposition.
"It's a bit of a story?"
Draco nodded. "That's fine. If I have questions I'll maybe wait until your done explaining—fair deal?"
"Sure." Her smile was soft and loving and Draco felt the tension in his body abate somewhat as he waited for her to speak.
"So, the Elder Wand?" He nodded, so she forged on..."As you probably know now—the Myth of the Elder Wand is very much real. Harry and I were able to determine that the wand originally belonged at one time to Gregorovitch—the wandmaker. It was stolen by Grindelwald and then Dumbledore won it from Grindelwald in 1945 when they dueled and Dumbledore defeated him. That night, on the Astronomy Tower...when you disarmed Dumbledore..."
Hermione saw the change the second Draco realized the truth as his breath pulled in sharply and his face paled.
"I disarmed him."
"You did." Hermione agreed with a sad look. "You didn't know what you'd done nor that the most powerful wand in the world now owed its allegiance to you. During the war, Harry's mind was linked with Voldemort's and I'll explain why that was in a bit..." Draco nodded..."but when Ollivander was taken hostage, it was because Voldemort was looking for the Elder Wand and wanted to know who had it."
Draco shook his head in the negative and Hermione stopped speaking—confusion marring her features.
"You might be a bit misinformed about that, Mine."
"In what way?"
Hermione watched as Draco flexed his hands several times, and she could see the underlying tension radiating from him which worried her—but she patiently waited until he was ready to explain—which he did after a few moments.
"Just before Potter turned seventeen...there was a meeting at the Manor with all the Death Eaters and He announced to all of us that he and Potter's Wands had twin cores. Something about they could maim but not kill each other because the wands wouldn't allow it."
"That's interesting." Hermione offered lowly. "Priori Incantatem."
Draco shrugged. "Well, whether that is true or not—He took my Father's Wand before he went after Potter. Apparently my Father's wand was destroyed, hence why he was wandless for most of that year."
Hermione just shook her head at how shortsighted Voldemort had been. For all his knowledge of magic, he was too arrogant to realize that wands were sentient unto themselves.
"Harry and Voldemort shared a connection Draco, and that was the biggest reason he couldn't kill Harry. Harry was a horcrux and when Voldemort 'killed' him that night in the forbidden forest there were several things at play. The first was Voldemort killed the piece of his own soul that was tied to Harry—the second was Harry was the Master of the Elder Wand because he'd disarmed you at Malfoy Manor and as such the wands allegiance shifted to him."
Draco's expression darkened minutely as he pondered that factoid...but after a moment sighed in resignation.
"Then it's good he disarmed me because no one wanted Him dead more than myself after what happened to you in my home, Mine."
She smiled and nodded, knowing that that night had been difficult for both of them for entirely different reasons. She had come to terms with that night a long time ago though.
"Draco, if we had never been captured by the snatchers...Harry could've never disarmed you and things would've likely been very different."
"Maybe, but I still don't like to think about it."
"I know." Hermione glanced over to the stone and picked it back up before placing it on the bed between them. "Voldemort thought Snape was the wands Master, that was why he killed him. We saw it happen but couldn't stop it or heal him. He didn't know that wand belonged to you—but Harry realized it I think at that moment which brings me back to the third reason Harry didn't die that night. Draco, do you know anything about the Deathly Hallows?"
The look of confusion on her wizard's face let Hermione know he indeed, didn't know what she was asking about.
"No. I've never heard of that term."
"What about the Peverell brother's?"
"That name I do know. The Peverell Family was a famous Pureblood Family that died out a couple hundred years ago."
Hermione nodded and then opened her beaded bag and pulled out the copy of Beedle the Bard that Dumbledore had bequeathed to her all those years ago. Draco's eyes widened in awe as the book came into view.
"Merlin! You have an original copy?"
"Yes." She handed it over to her wizard, who took it with reverence. It was one of the many things she loved about him—his love of literature that matched her own. "Dumbledore left this to me after he died. Open it up where the page is marked."
So Draco did, and he noticed immediately the strange runic symbol at the top of the page.
"What is this?"
"That love, is the sign of the Deathly Hallows. The Cloak Of Invisibility denoted with the triangle—conferred to Ignotus by Death himself if the story is to be believed."
Draco's eyes widened as he stared at her in wonder. "The Peverell brothers?"
"Yes." She admitted with a slight smile. "Antioch was the original owner of the Elder Wand. Ignotus had the cloak and he was a ancestor of the Potter family, hence why Harry had the Cloak of Invisibility." She chuckled when Draco scowled before finishing with... "Cadmus was apparently, given the Resurrection Stone by Death."
She wasn't surprised when Draco's face fell and paled—his eyes staring in horror at the little black stone between them.
"That is?"
"It is."
"So it can bring back?"
"It can."
"Fuck!" Draco whispered brokenly as he ran both hands down his face...trying to get ahold of his emotions.
"There is more."
"Seriously?"
Hermione nodded. "These three items, when held by a single individual makes one Master of Death. It's how Harry was able to survive the killing curse a second time. He saw Dumbledore in the afterlife, but the choice to return was his alone."
"You're shitting me?"
"No." Hermione chuckled again as she didn't think she'd ever seen Draco looking so...flabbergasted in all the years she'd known him.
"So Potter is the Master of Death?"
"He was." She looked down and shook her head at how ridiculous she'd thought this all was—once upon a time. But things weren't always straightforward and Magic was mysterious and beautiful. Deadly too. "After the final battle and Voldemort's fall—Harry destroyed the Elder Wand. He'd meant to return it to Dumbledore's tomb but felt that by removing the temptation—no one would try and seek it out. Without the wand the other items are simply Hallows...this one of course being what it is, it's important that you knew the entire story behind it."
Draco swallowed heavily and bowed his head for a bit before he gazed back up at her—his eyes filled with reluctant pain.
"So you plan to use this to summon Tori?"
"Only if we need to." She admitted unhappily. "You know Daphne better than me. Tell me love? Will we need to go that far to get her to back down? Do you really think she'd harm Scorpius by potentially trying to remove him from existence altogether?"
Draco couldn't lie, not about this. He knew exactly what Daphne was capable of.
"Yes. To get her sister back...Daphne won't care who she has to ruin to achieve that."
Hermione thought that was highly likely too, although she really hadn't wanted to admit it. It would be just her luck that she'd finally find happiness, peace and a family to call her own and some raving Pureblood lunatic witch would try and take it away from her.
She'd be damned if that was going to happen.
She wouldn't let anyone take her family from her.
"I was afraid you were going to say that."
"So what do we do?"
Putting the stone back into her bag, Hermione just shrugged. "If Daphne were going to do something untoward? Would she do it discreetly or make as big of a spectacle as she could?"
Draco smirked, his gaze heated as he admired not for the first time—his witch's strategic cunning.
"She'd want everyone to know and since she'd be undoing time likely concurrently, no one would be the wiser but her."
"So the gala?"
"Yes." Draco agreed readily. "Assuming Theo has the prototype completed."
"Then I suppose we will just have to figure out how to mitigate this from becoming a disaster."
"And how do we do that?"
"That's what I need to figure out."