Revelations
Disclaimer: All the characters/places in this story belong to J.K. Rowling.
A/N: Wow! I got so many reviews! Thank you to all of you who pushed the total to 265: DemonBlade, MoonDancerCat, CatalinaRose, CrystalineLily, CrimsonFirebolt (x7), f0xyness39, shibbydragongirl, googoo4you, Rebecca, LInda, Corundum Advance, j smith, soul of fyre158, Weasley Pride, SuSaMiNa, Texas Rio Star, trinity, kylee, aries, C, Natasha, Majestyic, The-Almighty-NailBunny (x8), kaori, Cosmic Angel, hyper_shark, firey fairy, Jenie, Ann, Pallida Mors, L. Meylan, Slytherin Angel, SophieBabe, JAMTillDawn, Geneveive, Goddess-Isis-112, Vanillastar, Nellie-chan, XtremeNusiance, Arial, kalariah, merrday, Amo il ragazzo, HpFre4k, Unicorn777!
Ok, time to address the two major criticisms I've received:
1. People said it wasn't very likely for them to find wands and broomsticks. I couldn't do anything about the broomsticks, but I've changed it so that they took their wands with them.
2. People said the killing curse couldn't be dodged. I don't this is proved either way by canon. In GOF it describes the curse as 'a jet of green light' shortly before the Priori Incantatem effect takes place, so I think it could probably be dodged.
If anyone has any more problems with the story, I'll try to change them if I can… Read and Review!
~*~
It was warm. It was warm, and it was cosy. It was warm, it was cosy and it was soft.
Draco Malfoy wasn't intending getting out of bed any time soon.
But then a familiar voice intruded into his thoughts and woke him fully.
'Draco?'
He opened one eye, to see Hermione in the next bed. 'Hmm.' He sleepily closed his eyes again.
'What happened?' asked Hermione, in the time-honoured fashion of the hospitalised. 'The last thing I remember is Ron and Harry coming to rescue me and…. you were there too… what happened?'
Draco pulled the blankets closer round him. If there was one thing Draco wasn't good at – heaven forbid - it was mornings. 'It's a long story.' he mumbled.
'We have time.'
Draco sighed, and reluctantly opened his eyes. 'Both me and Potter dreamed about you being kidnapped, we went off to rescue you by Floo, rescued you and got chased by Death Eaters, escaped on broomsticks, got chased by Death Eaters again, then we got back here.'
'Apparently it isn't that long a story.' remarked Hermione.
'I skipped some of the finer details.'
'Wait…' said Hermione cautiously. 'You escaped on broomsticks?'
Draco made an affirmative noise, and tried to settle into a doze.
'You escaped on broomsticks with me unconscious.' She now sounded slightly worried. 'Who carried me, and how did they make sure I didn't fall?'
'Well Potter carried you at first, but then he dropped you.'
'He WHAT!' Hermione almost shouted, sitting right up in bed.
'But I caught you.' Draco added quickly.
Hermione lay back down, rather white faced. 'Harry dropped me.'
'Er… yes.' replied Draco.
'And you caught me?'
'Yes.'
There was a silence. Hermione looked rather scared, and Draco thought she was probably thinking of the 'terrible risks' the boys had taken by carrying her away on broomsticks. It was probably safer, though, to take that risk rather than remain stranded in a house filled with Death Eaters. And the Glacios curse had been cured because of it.
'You remember I told you about the Glacios curse?' he began, prompted by a feeling that she would somehow want to know.
Hermione started to speak very quickly and excitedly. 'Oh! I found a book last night in the library with an entry for it, but the library closed before I could read it, but we can go back and get it and I'm sure it will have something about a cure in…'
'It's already cured.' interrupted Draco. He pushed himself upright, glancing over at Hermione. She looked rather pale, and too small in the crisp white bed she occupied. But her eyes were alive, twin points of dancing brown flame.
'What?' She glanced quickly over at him, her eyes betraying her surprise.
'When I caught you last night. It just…' Draco trailed off.
'Oh.'
'But I still don't know why it cured me.'
Hermione smiled. 'Well we can go and get the book and look it up and see!'
Her eyes shone for a moment. Draco wondered idly what she was thinking. Probably revelling in the idea of solving the mystery, he thought. Hermione was like that, full of energy to solve problems and learn things.
He was broken from this line of thought by the entrance of Madam Pomfrey.
'Ah, you're awake. I thought I heard voices.' She walked over to Hermione, beaming to see her patients recovering. 'How are you feeling this morning, dear?' she asked.
'Fine, thanks.'
'Your friends will be glad, they've been in here twice already looking for you.' She bustled around gathering potion bottles from various places, talking all the while about dangers and risks and Death Eaters.
There was a knock on the door, and Madam Pomfrey opened it to reveal Ron and Harry, standing on the threshold looking hopeful.
'Is Hermione…' began Ron, but Madam Pomfrey cut in.
'Yes, she's awake.' The boys' faces lit up.
'Can we see her?'
Madam Pomfrey frowned. 'She has had a terrible night… but she hasn't suffered more than a few cuts and bruises, so…' The two Gryffindors fairly raced in.
'But only for ten minutes, and don't excite her.'
Draco lay in bed, and listened to Harry and Ron go through the nights adventures in great detail. They didn't ignore Draco, but they didn't speak to him either. They occasionally glanced his way, especially when they were detailing events he had been the centre of.
In a while, Madam Pomfrey came to tell them their time was up, and the two boys left unwillingly, promising to be back later. The two patients lay in a slightly uncomfortable silence, shortly broken by Hermione.
'You know when someone tried to kill you? And hit you with Cruciatus?'
'Yes?' replied Draco guardedly.
She surprised him with her next question. 'What do you know about it that Ron and Harry don't?'
'Nothing.' he replied, making his voice a perfect mask of puzzlement. 'Whatever gives you that idea?'
'I was watching you while they were talking. When there's something you don't want people to know your face goes blank, like a mask.'
Draco paused. He didn't really want to tell her what he knew, but there was something about her that made him want to answer her. It was not a demanding something, or a something that inspired fear. It was more a something of trust. You could trust Hermione. It wasn't a concept he grasped easily, being a Slytherin, and brought up to trust no one.
'I know who it was that did it.' he found himself saying in a strangely neutral tone. 'I recognised the voice. It was my father.'
Hermione gasped. 'Your father? Your father tried to kill you?'
Madam Pomfrey saved Draco from answering by coming out of her office at that point, beaming as usual. She went over to Draco.
'Now, did you eat all that chocolate?' she asked.
'Yes.' Draco replied.
'Well, if you feel better, you can go. It's about halfway through breakfast, so you can still get something to eat if you want it.'
Draco nodded and pushed aside the sheets, Madam Pomfrey smiled even wider at him, and went back to her office to do whatever elusive thing nurses did in offices. Draco carefully pulled out the Malus Orbis, hiding it from Hermione's line of sight, and concealed it in a pocket.
Hermione spoke, very quietly. 'That book I found. It's called 'Dark Curses: A Guide' and it's under the Defence Against the Dark Arts section.'
Draco nodded his reply, and left the Infirmary to get some breakfast.
~*~
Morning break seemed like the safest time, bar midnight. Few of the Slytherins went back to their house common rooms during lunchtime, next to none came during break. And so Draco stood alone by the bright-burning fire, staring into its depths. The fire fascinated him now, now that he could feel the heat of the flames and not just see their dance. He almost wanted to plunge his hand into the flame, to see what burning felt like.
Instead, he reached into his pocket, and drew out the shining silver ball. He had risked a lot to get this – and Hermione – but it had paid off. He admired its pattern, twisting, turning a right angle here, making a U-turn there, with neither beginning nor end, and moving in the corner of your eye – so subtly you could hardly tell.
He held the ball firmly in his hands, and twisted sharply. It fell apart, forming two hollow halves. Inside one of the halves lay a single hair, so like Draco's, yet subtly different. He reached out, holding the half orb right over the flame, and tipped his father's hair into the fire. The unpleasant smell of burnt hair invaded Draco's nose, but he did not care. He carefully pulled one of his own hairs out, not even blinking an eye, and placed it in the orb. He brought the two halves together; they joined seamlessly and the orb glowed briefly with a dull light.
The Malus Orbis was bound to him.
~*~
The whole school had been whispering about the dramatic kidnapping – and rescue – that had taken place last night. Much to Draco's relief, the rest of his house had been told he had been ill in the night, and no one suspected the truth. He did not particularly want it to be known he had been involved in the rescue. A lot of his house members would not take this at all well. And, while he was not friends particularly with any of them, he was smart enough not to want to get on their bad side.
After lunch, he went to the library, where he found the book with relative ease. He sat down at the table with it, turning to the index to look up the curse, when a thought struck him. He closed the book, and after a quick pause to get it checked out, headed for the infirmary.
The corridors were still full of chatter. There were wild theories about how the Death Eaters had managed to kidnap her – they had learned to break the wards, someone in Gryffindor Tower was a Death Eater, Hermione herself was a Death Eater and had run to join her fellows, but hadn't counted on Harry and Ron 'rescuing' her. Draco laughed inwardly. How could anyone believe this rubbish? Most Gryffindors were too 'good', too 'brave' to ever join Voldemort. And Hermione a Death Eater? Never! Hermione was … the wrong sort of person. Hermione being a Death Eater would be like a square peg going in a round hole that happened to exist in another dimension.
Draco reached the Infirmary, and was allowed in to see her. She looked rather bored, lying in her bed and waiting until she could be let out. When she saw Draco, her face lit up and her smile glowed. Draco was surprised to find himself smiling back, and a surge of warmth flood through him.
'Hi.' she said, smiling.
He returned the greeting and took a seat in one of the chairs by her bed. There were a few boxes of sweets on the table by her bedside, and a bunch of wilting flowers, obviously picked from the grounds. He looked at the flowers with a raised eyebrow.
She followed his gaze. 'Lavender and Parvati didn't have any sweets because they're on a diet, so they picked me the flowers.'
Draco nodded vaguely. 'I got the book.' he said.
'What did it say?' she queried eagerly.
'I haven't looked yet.' He pulled the book out of his schoolbag.
'Well open it!' She sounded like an impatient child on Christmas morning. He couldn't help but smile. He never used to smile, but there was something about Hermione that made him want to.
He flicked through the index and soon found the correct page. 'The Glacios Curse' he read. 'Invented 1215…it makes the sufferer feel as if they are freezing… Apparently, it only affects the skin, and it's a very powerful illusion, so that explains why I'm not dead from pneumonia or something…'
He flicked the page over, and let his eyes skim the top paragraph. And then he read it again, slower and disbelievingly.
The only cure for the Glacios curse is for the sufferer to touch the skin of someone they truly love…