Chapter 10

The Truth

Blink... Again... Again... Bright lights.

Alarmed.

"Where am I...?"

"Lay down, sirs..."

"Where the hell am I?"

"You're in your bed...shhh..."

"Why can't I bend my arms... or move...?"

"Sirs, you were found here... like this..."

"Like what?..." Hazy...

"Oh sirs..." White...

Unconscious.

Hermione awoke later after dropping Malfoy off around five that morning. It was now... she checked her watch.

4:30! How had she slept so long? She wondered where Lupin was... if he was asleep in his room or if e had set off for the Malfoy's to keep watch already.

Stiffly, she got up and knocked politely on his door. When there was no response she walked in slowly. No one there. If he was at the manor and had caught sight of Malfoy Jr., he had to be wondering what was going on. If he wasn't even back from wherever he went during his transformation, then she still had time to make up a story as to what happened last night. She could always just say nothing out of the ordinary happened, however, if Draco wasn't healed by the time Lupin caught a look at him, then she would have to make something up. Then again, she didn't even know what happened to him in the first place. The only thing she would have to lie about would be sneaking him into the cabin.

Pushing these uneasy thoughts to the back of her mind, she set off to take a shower as some of the thick bluish liquid had settled in on her arms and spattered on her clothes and even on her face. It was, for lack of a better word -- Disgusting.

After she was done getting cleaned up and had eaten, she continued to work on her potion to become an animagus. She was mildly surprised to find that the potion was not entirely unlike a very advanced Polyjuice potion. Though, after all, it was going to alter her appearance just as that particular potion would, only this time it would be at will and for longer than an hour. She had borrowed Wolfsbane out of the medicine cabinet, though she wasn't sure what it would have been used for. Though she had already set her eyes on becoming a little brown barn owl, those ingredients to change into whatever specific animal the person wanted to be were added last, so she didn't need to get those ingredients anytime soon. If needed, she could still change her mind.

It was now 8 o'clock and she was busy working on what she would say to Lupin when he came home. Before she could work out all the little things, the front door opened and Lupin strode in looking weary and older than usual, but inevitably healthier than he had looked mere days before his transformation.

"Hello there Hermione, how are things going with your studies?" he said casually, setting his moth eaten grey coat on the table and turning on the kitchen light. Hermione dismissed his question.

"Were you at the manor or..." she implored, trying not to sound suspicious.

"No, unfortunately I had to skip today's watch because though I changed back into... myself this morning, Minerva wanted to meet with us today, but I knew you were busy so I told her she could just bother me with the details then, and I would tell you later. It really wasn't that exciting actually..." Lupin pondered.

"What was it about then?"

"Nothing really, just that no one has really found anything new out. Though, she did say that our Intel on the Zambini "soiree" was actually helpful. Apparently they had several kegs of Fire Whiskey lying around and a man named Napoleon McOwens was apprehended in the Hogshead Inn, completely inebriated. He didn't even remember why he was there or how he got there. He was apprehended by Moody, who was having a drink himself, coincidentally. And although McOwens didn't know how he got there, we did, only because Tonks watched him from outside the mansion and she followed him there. It wasn't too far away, he took the train because we guess he couldn't figure out how to apparate in his current state. Either way, he was captured and is in questioning as we speak. So did anything happen to you while I

was gone?"

"Nothing really," she mumbled. She was usually a bad liar too, she hoped he didn't notice that she wasn't looking him in the eyes.

"Anything new? At all?" he pressed.

"No, " She lied again. He dropped the matter somewhat indignantly and headed towards the bathroom.

"Well, I'm a wreck and I need my sleep so don't bother to say goodbye when you leave. Goodnight Hermione," He walked off.

"Goodnight professor," Hermione breathed out a sigh of relief. Well, she definitely didn't feel as worthless as she did back when they were assigning her meaningless jobs. Now maybe she was helping with the war effort. However, she would have to

stop saving the e enemy from now on. She decided to set off towards the manor.

Blink...Blink...

"What fresh hell!" the blonde boy yelled from his ruffled bed. "Kito! Get filthy ass in

here!" From far away, a crash could be heard, then loud shrieking, then the loud stumbling on the stairs, and then finally a polite, somewhat quiet knock on the door.

"I said come in now, vermin!" The door creaked open and Kito stumbled in, looking frightened and had a large lump on his head.

"Why am I wrapped up in all these?" Malfoy stuttered.

"Us house elves don't know sir, but everything was..." he trailed off.

"Everything was what?" Silence.

"Everything was bloody what?" he yelled menacingly, wincing and clutching his stomach.

"Well sir, everything was... blue... again. You were found with the bandages on." Malfoy's face went white. "We already changed the bandages twice"

"Did my father ... do this?" Why couldn't he remember? 'But it had to be him right, I mean who else could have gotten in the house undetected?'

"None of the house elves knows sir, and Master Malfoy and Mistress are still on their trip to Bangkok, they'll be back in two days me thinks, sir."

'So it couldn't have been my father, which means if he wasn't in the house, then it could have been anyone. It could've been.." His thoughts trailed off.

"I wish for these bandages to be removed, fetch charlotte and have her remove them or replace them, whichever seems necessary. Then I want dinner. Hurry up!" he yelled and Kito jumped and darted from the room.

"That wasn't very nice, Malfoy," Hermione drawled slowly from the window.

Draco's head snapped around violently. Even at, the first glance, he seethed and glared. He didn't even know what to say to her. .She was always near him when she shouldn't be. Always talking to him when she should just shut her mouth. Whining when she should be taking action…. Winning when he failed so miserably . He would never admit that thought. Now he was even angrier. How much of that had she heard?

"You're looking sickening tonight Malfoy, Maybe even more pale than usual," she snickered, carefully concealing her slight care. It wasn't care really … it was more curiosity. Obviously she had done a decent job on his bandages, as he was still alive. Whether that was a good ting or not was debatable of course.

"Stifle your flattery woman, let's cut to the chase. You did this to me. Why? H e actually thought she wouldn't have been able to do it, a mudblood. Not only that, but she didn't have the guts to take him on, but it was at least mildly entertaining to watch her puff up in indignation.

"I most certainly did no such thing. Whoever did it probably hated you as much as I…" She paused. They were coming. She disappeared from under the cloak and waited impatiently on the house elves to change his bandages. As Malfoy slowly pulled off his shirt, he turned and cast a smirk out the window where he knew it would make uncomfortable. Hermione blushed involuntarily.

The house elves first took the bandages off his arms. The cuts there were completely gone, as were the ones on his legs. Hermione knew that the elves could have had cut healing potions stronger than she had ready, but she was still taken aback by how clear and untainted his skin was. Pure and smooth as alabaster, though she had never felt it, at least it looked… ungodly. The house elves started unwrapping the bandages around his midsection slowly, almost tantalizingly.

'What was she thinking? Nothing about him was tantalizing in the slightest. The only thing about him that could possibly make her mouth waster would be the mere thought of his head on a silver platter. She grinned, but oh no, they were done with taking off his bandages. They were very well on their way to being healed but, as if to confirm her suspicions, the cuts were crusted over blue instead of red. The house elves didn't seem to notice or care, as if they had seen it before, perhaps even many

times.

'Merlin he had such a nice…' Pause. "Piece of shit," Hermione mumbled incoherently.

Unfortunately, the house elves huge ears had more purpose than just looking funny. Both Charlotte and Kito turned their heads, and their ears were cocked slightly

crooked, waiting for another sound.

"What are you idiots looking at, it's just an animal or something in the trees. Did you hear me? Fix me!" Malfoy cut in distracting the, "Actually just forget it, just get out! OUT OUT OUT!" The house elves immediately believed him, after all he was always right wasn't he? That is what they had always been taught and they weren't going to change their opinions now. They scattered quickly. "Caught yourself checking me out

did you?" he grinned as the door closed behind his servants.

'How could he have possibly known that?' she thought. His smirk grew increasingly wide.

"What?" she asked feeling apprehensive… why was he smiling so much?

"What was that granger?" he asked, moving towards the window, still failing to put on a shirt.

" I didn't say anything…" Did she? What if she had said that out loud? She would just die if he had actually hear that. That wasn't even her actual thoughts. Now she was confused. He made her head hurt and that made her furious.

"So you admit that you like my gorgeous body, then you deny that you every said anything. And to think, you call me mean. I think you should apologize t me." He leaned on the window sill watching his perfectly manicured nails, waiting for her response.

"I will most certainly not apologize to a git like you, especially if I never said it in the first place," She huffed. Of course she had said it, because that is that only way he would have known to say anything about it, the sneaky bastard.. Draco found himself liking her obvious distress and n liking this, he became angry, as he shouldn't like anything she did. He hated her so much right now.

He changed subjects. "So, if you watch me every night, then you have to know what the hell happened to me. I assume you know about my… condition, if you will." He knew that she had to have seen the blood, the abnormal blood. Oh, how he hated it, and her. Of course, with her extensive knowledge in such trivial things she should

know what he had… what he was.

"What are you on about Malfoy?" She asked. Why did he think she knew so much about his "Abnormality"

"Well I assumed you knew why my blood was…"

"Blue? No I don't."

"Then forget it, its not even important. What I want to know is, who did this to me?"

"I don't know Malfoy, I didn't see anything." She said plainly, clearly agitated by his stupid questions. He was no longer useful to her if he knew barely anymore about how he got that way.

"Well you had to have seen me lying there."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because you weren't surprised when you saw my injuries."

"Fine, I saw you lying there."

"Then who did it?"

"I don't know."

"Then who put the bandages on me? Who saved me, Granger?"

"I-I don't know" "Granger…"

"Why does matter? You're alive aren't you?" She shouldn't have said that, now he knew she knew.

"Granger, now I know you know." Point made. "So just tell me now and get it over with the easy way, before I have to hurt you." He was getting annoyed.

"I don't think you want to know" She bit her lip. He wanted to touch her. Stop. Then it hit him. Her.

"Granger it.. was you wasn't it?" Silence. She decided to leave before he made fun of her, before he tore down her shell. She took off but he yelled after her. "You saved the devil, Granger," he laughed maniacally. She flew back and looked him right in the eyes.

"No Malfoy, I saved a scared…little… boy." She paused, pondering if she should say anymore and then decided against and id returned to her flight into the night.

When she returned back to the Cabin, her heart was still beating exceptionally fast. She shouldn't have told him. Well technically she didn't but she was a horrible liar and he saw right through her. Meanwhile, it seemed that she at least got something interesting out of Malfoy tonight. When she walked in, Lupin was already waiting for her at the kitchen table, as he usually was.

"Good morning, Hermione.. Get anything good? He asked jovially, sipping his coffee. But, she was still in a foul mood now, as it seemed she always was after leaving there.

"As a matter of fact, yes. The Malfoy's are in Bangkok. I don't know why I'm going to bed. Goodnight professor." She said shortly. He ignored her bad attitude due to his obvious excitement. It was very difficult to catch the Malfoy duo, after all. He set off at once.

"Well goodnight Hermione, I'm off to tell Minerva the good news."

Hermione mumbled her goodbyes and headed towards her bedroom. But when the front door slammed shut, she didn't go to bed. Instead she headed for the reading room and searched for books that would help her in her current quest. A kind of psychotic fervor to understand was coursing through her. Book after book she went through. Magical. Maladies, Secret Diseases of the Malformed, Malformations in the Magical Community, and finally the book she had been looking for, Vomica, full of dark curses and unpreventable abnormalities. She flipped through the book, looking for anything that even remotely resembled Malfoy's problem.

"Blood, blood... come one!" Hermione mumbled loudly. As if the book had understood her, its pages began to turn at an inhuman speed, right to... Hermione read to herself.

Fuse of Cruor

Infusion of Blood

"Some cultures in mostly South American countries started a ritual of transferring the blood of a certain animal the person portrays. Only a small amount of blood is transferred and is usually dropped into the mouth of the victim. The blood is sterilized, usually, to avoid contamination or disease. These ceremonies are closely watched by family members and sometimes mediwitches in the more stable environments.

"Some believe these rare rituals were the beginnings of Vampirism, as no one knows how far back these ceremonies date back. More often than not, these ceremonies are performed by gifted individuals, very familiar with the event, so as to avoid even further complications. Many people also believe that these small infusions of blood make the person stronger, and more like the animal they have chosen. For example, a fox or a rabbit may make the person quicker or stealthier.

"However, no record of any magical blood infusion has been documented, except one. A nobleman in the early 18th century, Pierre di Leon, was fascinated with thestrals. He read about these rituals and would have loved nothing more than to become more like one. So, he had his servants perform the task and it went off without a hitch for many years. Unfortunately, it was very ill-advised to tamper with magical blood. Fifteen to twenty years after he transferred the first of the blood, he was found repetitively on the floor for strange reasons he could not remember. His diary was discovered later, after his body was found mangled for no reason in the dungeons of his own home. His diary explained about how he believed the thestral in him had grown to want to escape, flee and part from his physical body. It was literally tearing him apart, and eventually succeeded. No knowledge of tampering with any type of magical blood infusions has since been documents and has been determined as illegal to all of the magical community for around seventy years."

Hermione was in shock. What was Malfoy, for he couldn't be all human. It was as slightly ironic that he didn't have the "pure blood" that he preached about. Though, she could still be mistaken, though everything seemed to fit. If this was true, then what could Malfoy have been. Perhaps it was a clue that his blood was blue. What animal had blue blood? It was on the tip of her tongue. Draco Malfoy, Draco, Draco...Draconis... A dragon.