THE COVER UP
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any part of the Harry Potter universe and I am grateful to be able to borrow them for a short time.
Reviews are a writer's coffee: they keep us going as long as we get some. *hint*
"About what? Hermione, slow down. Is this what you did with Potter & Weasley? Merlin's Beard, Granger, what are you going on about?" He was exasperated.
She didn't stop pulling her together as she spoke, "Ok, I guess it's not life or death this time is it? Sorry. Here's my idea: a Laser."
"A laser? What about a laser? Better yet what is a laser?"
With her stuff gathered and stowed in her bag, she started to gather Draco's stuff into a neat, organized pile. "There are times when muggles get marks, called tattoos and then they don't like them. So there are machines in the muggle world that are used to remove those tattoos. Maybe that will work to remove your Mark."
"Ok, first, I know what tattoos are. We have them in the wizard world also, in case you didn't know. Second, WOW, something about the wizarding world you didn't know?! We need to mark this occasion! Third, how do we do it?" He was trying to control his excitement in case it didn't work but if there was a chance, he would take it.
"We need to talk to McGonagall because I know the person to see about it. My friend from Australia! He's a tattoo artist. We can apparate right into his shop and talk to him. But we need permission from the Headmistress to leave school for a few days."
"Well, let's go talk to her." He was visibly as excited as she was. He was grabbing his work and stuffing it into his bag without care of her neatly organized piles just moments before they rushed out of the library.
They arrived at the Headmistress' office, recited the password and had to stop outside her door and bring themselves under control from excitement. Hermione knocked on the door and waited to be invited in.
"Come in!" they heard from behind the door. They entered the office and were directed to chairs sitting in front of her desk. "Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy. What can I do for you?" McGonagall asked the pair.
Draco looked to Hermione, silently asking her to start since it was her idea. She explained her thoughts and asked for permission to leave school with Draco to talk to her friend.
"Ms. Granger, let me make sure I understand you. You have a friend in Australia who might be able to remove Mr. Malfoy's Dark Mark with a laser. And a laser is a muggle machine that removes bad Marks. And you want to take Mr. Malfoy to this friend and see if his Mark can be removed by this machine. Miss Granger, how does he even know about the Dark Lord or the Mark? You haven't been talking to muggles about our world have you? That would be a serious violation."
"No, Professor, I haven't been talking to muggles about our world. He's a muggle-born wizard but he lives between worlds. He owns a muggle tattoo parlor in Perth. He's the only one I know who can tell us if laser tattoo removal will work for the Dark Mark." Hermione stressed her point that it's just a visit to see if what she is proposing is even an option. "We would apparate into his shop before or after hours and he can look at the Mark and let us know. We probably won't be gone for long, maybe just a day."
"Mr. Malfoy, you agree to this?"
"Yes Professor. I want this thing off of me. Hermione knows what she's talking about and if she thinks this might work, I'm willing to trust her and try it. After all, it's just to give him a look at it to see if he can help."
"Alright. I give my permission for you both to leave school, but please try to arrange it so it's either Friday night or Saturday morning. That way you won't lose any class time."
"Thank you Professor! Thank you! I'll contact him to find out when we can go see him. Professor, the fastest way for me to contact him is a muggle way but in order for me to use this way I need to be in a muggle village. With your permission, we'll walk to Hogsmead and then apparate to Harry's family's old house, which is still vacant and make contact." Hermione was nearly jumping up and down in excitement but didn't think trying to explain texting to the older witch was a good idea.
"Fine Miss Granger, but not until the weekend. It just so happens this weekend is a Hogsmead weekend anyway."
The two young people left the Headmistress' office barely able to not jump up and down. Well, Hermione was practically jumping up and down, Draco was cautiously optimistic. He had had his hopes up and crushed so many times about that stupid Mark that he was a little calmer than his friend.
"Let's not tell anyone. Not until we know what's going to happen." Draco suggested.
"Agreed. But if this works, then everybody who doesn't want the Mark or who was forced to take the Mark might have a way to get rid of it and to finally put that part of their lives in the past and move forward."
The remaining three days of the week took months and months to go by but the weekend did finally arrive. Draco and Hermione walked towards Hogsmead together talking, "I'll meet you at the Three Broomsticks when you're done. That way you can tell me what he said." Draco told her.
"No, Draco, you're coming with me."
"What? Why?"
"That way I won't have to explain it all to you again." She replied. When they reached the edge of where they could apparate from, Hermione grabbed Draco's arm and they disappeared from sight only to arrive a few seconds later in the middle of an empty house.
"This is where Potter lived? What rubbish!"
"Draco, stop."
"No, this is awful! I wouldn't have lasted more than a day with whoever decorated this place." He shuddered.
Hermione was laughing at his reactions. "It is a bit hackneyed." She agreed.
He nodded his head while still looking around, "Ok, so we're here, now what do we do?"
As soon as they arrived, Hermione had pulled out her dead mobile and charger and plugged it into the wall socket to charge. "What time is it in Australia?" She wondered out loud as she waited for the mobile to turn on.
"Let's see. It's 11 am here so maybe 7 pm, I think."
"Oh good, he'll still be in the shoppe." She sat down and leaned against the wall. She was typing away on the small device in her hands when Malfoy realized she was just sitting there.
"Hey, Granger, what do we do?" He asked again.
"I'm doing it. I'm sending him a text. We'll get a response pretty fast."
"From Australia? Doubtful. What's text other than one of the books we have to read?" He asked as he sat down next to her.
She had already sent off the text to her friend and while waiting for a response was trying to explain mobile phones and texting to Draco.
It only took about an hour to receive a response back. Hermione looked at the message and showed it to Draco. Mina! Gr8 2 read from u. Was with cust. Sounds interesting, send pic. Lov U! :-D
Draco read the message three times before admitting defeat, "I have no idea what that says."
Hermione chuckled, "Roll up your sleeve. I want to take a picture of your Mark."
"Ok, but what does that say?"
"It says, 'Mina!' that's me, 'Great to read from you. Was with a customer. Sounds interesting, send photograph. Love You!' See? Then he sent a smiley face." She had pointed to each word on the screen as she translated texting into understanding for the young wizard. "Now roll up your sleeve."
"We didn't bring a camera."
"There's a muggle camera on my mobile." He showed her his arm, she took the picture and then quickly sent the picture back.
"This is almost too strange for me to deal with." Draco let her know.
"If this works, you won't have that monstrosity on your arm anymore. I think you can handle it, Draco."
It took longer this time to get a response, "Oh, he says he can't tell enough from the picture. He wants to know if we can come over now for a couple of hours so he can really study it. You up for going to Australia for a bit?"
"We don't have to be back to school for another 5 hours. That should be fine."
"Great!" She sent off a text to expect them in the back room in 5 minutes. She unplugged her phone and stuffed the cord and the phone in her handy beaded bag. "Ready?"
"Ready." He took her hand and she apparated them into a room no bigger than a closet that was completely dark. "Terrific Granger. You apparated us into what? A broom cupboard?"
She didn't respond to his sarcasm, she simply drew her wand, uttered a quite luminous and found the door that led to the rest of the shop. She stepped into the shop and hollered "LIAM! WE'ER HERE!"
"I think he heard you, Granger. Even the dead heard you."
"Ha ha! But I don't think he heard me at all." She pulled him out of the closet and into a small hallway where they could hear music playing loudly.
They walked toward the music and he decided she was probably correct, Liam didn't hear her. She walked up to him and stood in front of the desk that he was behind. She looked at what he found so interesting and saw a print out of the Dark Mark. "LIAM!
He heard her this time and after waving his wand to turn down the music, he came around the desk to give her a hug. "Mina, great to see you! You look better. Are you eating and sleeping finally?"
"Thanks. I'm slowly feeling better." Draco raised his eye brows at this comment but didn't say anything. "Thanks for letting us come over."
"No problem. You know I'm up for a challenge. Is this him?" Liam had pointed to Draco.
"Yea, sorry. Liam, Draco. Draco, Liam."
Draco had been studying the man and Draco wasn't sure he wanted this man anywhere near him. He was a huge man: 20 stone at least and stood over 2 meters tall. He was older, maybe mid to late 30s. He was bald except a strip down the center of his head where his hair was standing straight up in several different colored spikes. It appeared his entire body was covered in tattoos, including his head, neck and portions of his face. But he seemed friendly enough and he was willing to help out just because Granger asked him to. Who was Draco to argue? He stuck his hand out in greeting. "Pleasure to meet you, Liam."
This surprised Hermione. She knew he had changed but even open minded people usually took some time to figure out Liam was a large teddy bear.
"Pleasure is mine if you're a friend of Mina's. So you've got a tat you wanna remove, yea?" Liam inquired as the men shook hands.
"Yes if you can." Draco's sleeve was still rolled up from when Hermione took the picture. He turned his arm out so the other man could inspect it.
"Mina said you've tried every magical means to remove it and nothing works. So she wanted to see if there was a non-magical way to remove it. So let's see." He led Draco over to a reclining chair and had him sit down. "Let me know if this hurts." With that he picked up a tattoo gun and started to poke Draco's arm at different locations. Occasionally Draco would yell that it hurt sometimes it would hurt more than other times, but it still hurt and considering the number of times he had been put under Cruciatus, that said something.
Finally Liam put the tattoo gun down and looked at the two people in his shop. "I don't think a laser is going to work. You yelled the loudest when I tried to push the point of the gun into the lines as deep as would be needed to remove this. When He did this, He went deep. I'm sorry, but they'd have to remove most of your arm to remove this."