Chapter Seven
Draco had left the dining hall as quickly as he politely could. Xavier was doing that annoying pampering thing again to Granger. He couldn't stand the way the smarmy git was behaving, and he couldn't understand why Granger was allowing him. She couldn't possibly like him could she?!
He huffed all the way to the library, where he immediately busied himself with gathering books that could be used for their research session later on. He was in the process of climbing a ladder to reach one of the books higher up when a couple of voices drifted in through the library door. He quickly descended and hid in the cloak closet.
"I'm telling you, Michel. Something is not right!" came Xavier's frustrated voice.
"You are overreacting my friend. Just...go with the flow."
"She hated me before, why is it that she has an accident and suddenly she's changed?"
"I don't know. Maybe she has amnesia." replied Michel, with a chuckle.
"Maybe. I don't like it at the moment. Everything is too easy. I mean she does not protest when I spoon feed her - do you remember her reaction the last time I tried that?"
"How could I forget? You wound up with her dinner splattered over your suit." Michel laughed again, Draco fought to stifle his laughter and Xavier sighed.
"Michel, you know the reason why I'm marrying her."
"Because she's the only girl who isn't in love with you, you arrogant git."
"That's right. Arrogant as that may seem, it's the truth." Draco rolled his eyes at this comment.
"Well now she likes you. Don't complain, Xavier."
"I'm not! It's just that I was looking forward to breaking her slowly, until she was mine completely. She's making it too easy - and I want a challenge, it makes the prize all the more sweeter at the end."
Draco almost gagged at this, as he realised what Xavier meant by the 'prize at the end'.
The thought of Granger sleeping with him was disgusting.
"Of course. Well I had better leave, it is getting late. Good night, Xavier." said Michel. And Draco heard the sound of footsteps heading towards the library door, signalling that they had left the room. But he was afraid that they might double back to get something from the library, so he stayed in the closet for another five minutes, just to be safe.
He mulled over what he had just heard - it seemed that this whole sickening affection thing that Xavier was doing was just an act that Granger was falling for. Stupid girl. And it seemed that the real Marie didn't like Xavier...well...he didn't blame her.
The sound of footsteps reached his ears again, and he stiffened against the wall of the closet. What if Xavier had left a cloak in the closet or something...his worst fear came true as the closet door swung open and Draco was still crouched inside it, with nowhere to hide.
"Malfoy?!"
Phew. It was only Granger.
"Yes Granger, its me." he replied calmly, gracefully climbing out of the closet.
"What were you doing in there?" she asked curiously.
"None of your business." he answered curtly. She shot him a sour look.
"We have a truce, Malfoy."
"So? Doesn't mean I have to tell you everything." he replied shortly.
"Fine. Be like that." she huffed. There was a few moments of silence as they both glared at each other.
"Oh fine, if you really must know I was eavesdropping." Draco explained with a sigh, conceding defeat to Granger's death stare.
"On who?"
"Who else?!"
"Your parents?!" she asked stupidly.
"No you idiot. Your husband-to-be." he answered with a roll of his eyes.
"Oh. Hey, I'm not an idiot!" she exclaimed angrily.
"Yeah whatever." He ignored her and walked over to the desk where he had placed several books to do with Potions, or as close as they could get to Potion books. They were mainly chemistry books, with a couple of so called 'witchcraft' books.
"Here, read these." he said, throwing two over to her. She caught them, and scowled at him.
"What did you overhear?" she asked sourly.
"Oh...the usual. He still thinks he's the king of the world." Draco replied vaguely.
"What else?" Draco thought for a bit. Should he tell her what he had overheard or not?
"Uh, well he's, you know, enjoying your company." he answered feebly. Hermione raised her eyebrows, but did not press any further. They flipped through their books in silence.
"Found anything yet?" asked Draco after a while.
"Yeah, how to brew a so-called Love Potion." Hermione muttered. Draco raised his eyebrows at her.
"That means I haven't found anything yet." she added quickly.
And so this went on until almost midnight when Draco gave a jubilant shout and jumped up in celebration.
"I remember now - Snape told us that the counter ingredient to murkwood is this Muggle spice, its called saffron. Its got magical properties when used in Potions. Do you remember, Granger?" Hermione nodded slowly.
"Yeah, vaguely. So what do you propose that we do about it?" she asked.
"We're in Paris aren't we? I'm sure a big city like this would sell Muggle spices right?"
"So you're going to go and buy saffron. Then what? How are we going to get all the other ingredients for the potion? They're not Muggle."
"Ah. Well I'll get the saffron first, then I'll go looking for the magic stuff. I'm sure Paris has a Wizarding Quarter." said Draco confidently.
"Ok. You can take responsibility for finding the ingredients and a proper cauldron - I'll brew the Potion. I'm going to sleep now, it's pretty late already." said Hermione with a yawn.
"Good night, Granger. Sleep well." said Draco with a small smile. Hermione gave him a funny look.
"G'night, Malfoy." She turned to leave the room, still puzzled at Malfoy's civility.
--
Harry burst into the Great Hall during breakfast and went immediately to the Gryffindor table, dragging Ron from his breakfast. He did the same to Blaise, to the displeasure of the Slytherin table.
"What's this all about Harry?" asked Ron.
"You've got to see this." was all he said. He led them to the library and to the corner where they usually did their research.
"Look at this." He pointed to a page in an open book.
They both leaned in to look, and saw something quite startling.
"Whe-where did his name go?" stammered Ron.
"Exactly. Malfoy's name has disappeared off his present family tree, which can only mean one thing -" Harry said quietly.
"He no longer exists in the present?" Blaise supplied.
"Yeah, and he doesn't exist in the past either. I've checked." said Harry.
"What?!" exclaimed Ron, "That's not possible. He's a real person - he cant just disappear into thin air!"
"Maybe he has another name in the past." suggested Blaise.
"Maybe. But its going to be pretty damn hard to find him among all the male Malfoys - they have only produced male children, and they keep reusing the names - you have about twelve Malfoys with Draco as a first name or middle name." sighed Harry.
"Why can't those Malfoys be original for once? I always thought that Lucius and Draco were quite original names - now I know that they just got it off their grandparents." joked Ron lamely.
"It's an upper pureblood tradition to reuse names." explained Blaise, "I got my name from my great grandfather."
"And I got my name from my parents. Don't think there have been any other Weasleys called Ron either - guess that explains why we're not upper class purebloods." Ron said quietly. It was an awkward moment - nobody knew what to say to that.
"Yes, well have you checked up Granger's family tree, Harry?" asked Blaise, changing the topic.
"Its not in here. The Grangers aren't as famous as the Malfoys are, obviously." Harry replied.
"So we'll just have to research all the Malfoys with the name Draco one by one?" asked Ron incredulously.
"Yeah, we've got to pinpoint exactly where in history Malfoy and Hermione are." answered Harry calmly.
"Goddamn, this is really turning into a hassle." muttered Ron.
"But it's a hassle we've got to overcome if we ever want to see them again." argued Blaise.
"Ok, point taken. So lets get to work shall we?"
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A/N: Well, there we go another filler chapter. I promise more stuff will happen next chapter...so stay tuned guys! Thanks soooo much for all your reviews - shout outs to my wonderful reviewers: Anodyne Letham, mir, Meg, ilovetom88, shadowsylvia, emikae, justafan and Lady-Delphinea : ) you guys rock! Keep the reviews coming please!