The arriving of the delegates was spectacular for everyone. Most importantly it was the arrival of Victor Krum that had everyone in awe. Malfoy was of course very smug about having the international Quiddtich star at his table. For some reason however he found himself looking over to the Gryffindor table.
The next week was filled with a lot of excitement as people put their names into the Goblet, but all hell broke loose when the names of the champions were released. Ron was pissed, Harry was worried, Malfoy was making his life hell and Hermione was being followed by Krum.
Much to Malfoy's chagrin Krum had taken to asking him about Granger. They had shared classes with the students from the other schools and he seemed to have taken a shine to her. This found a very uncomfortable Draco Malfoy walking up to a clueless Hermione Granger in their corner of the library.
"Here…" he said as he dumped another brown paper package in front of her unceremoniously
"Oh! hi… thank you" she said looking up form her work
He almost walked away when she said "hang on… here, I have to return these to you… They were very informative… but I didn't understand the whole clothes bit… apparently it's similar to jewellery exchange?… Could you… um… tell me about that…" She asked hesitantly.
Draco made a big show of sighing but on the inside he was out of control. He had not expected to talk to her. The fact that he had to avoid conversation all week about her from Krum was already grating on his nerves. Add that to the fact, that he had found Krum taking a weekend flight and had to ensure he kept him away from a very specific window and he was already on edge. He was still processing the blood situation in his head and had in fact asked for some of the tomes just to research muggelborns and what he found wasn't not helping his situation. He reluctantly took a seat next to her and when Draco spoke it felt like he was weighing his words…
"In most Wizarding families we don't just buy jewellery as an ornament. We imbued it with protective charms, blood magic other complex enchantments. These get more and more powerful as they are passed on from one owner to another. They begin to bond with the magic of the family or familial magic as we know it, until the jewellery is much more than just a trinket, it is a vessel of magic itself. When a witch or wizard gifts jewellery to each other and the other persons chooses to wear it, it symbolises that they are willing to be part of their family… They are willing to pour a little bit of their magic into each other, which is frankly a much bigger deal than some down on one knee proposal…" he finished
"wow… that sounds almost romantic…" Hermione breathed out
"Yes… it is…" Draco said with a slightly far away look in his eyes…
"But what's that got to do with house elves?" Hermione frowned to herself
"Think of magic that is held within a person like a pearl, each time you connect with a person you add to it. Family magic is like string of pearls that connect to one another, when two powerful families unite, more pearl gets added… it's the same with the creatures you connect with, the Elves bond to families and draw on their magic, the elves magic is powerful but unstable, when they bond with a family, their magic gets channeled…"
"So why not allow them wands?"
"Wands aren't powerful enough for elvish magic… "
"what does clothes do?"
"Clothes break the string of pearls connecting them to the magic…"
"How can a sock do that much damage?"
"It's not the object Granger! It's the significance, gah! You still don't get it do you? It's not about magic, its about what it stands for, it's about how it's passed down, it's about the right sort of breeding to become more powerful, it's like…. It's like… A carefully created potion! Clueless powerful muggleborns are like a badly manufactured cauldron. A variable that was not accounted for and that messes everything up, it changes the very postulations the potion was built upon and that is problem!" Draco suddenly realised he was flailing… Malfoy's didn't fail about like chickens..
He put his hands down and took a deep breath. Hermione was just silently stunned. He closed his eyes to compose himself and then looked at her coldly
"The bond between elves and wizards wouldn't make sense to you if it hit you in face like a ton of bricks, because you don't have what it takes to understand it…"
He snatched up the previously loaned books and stalked out the library leaving a very confused Hermione.
When he had started flailing about she had almost wanted to laugh, but she'd be lying if that last remark hadn't stung her a bit. Luckily for her, Draco wasn't the only one who could explain things to her. Her head was already racing with questions, so she pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and began to write a letter to Bill Weasley.
Please do review!