Chapter 10 - Beginnings of Clarity

In the days that followed Hermione's trip to Diagon Alley, much of her time was spent dedicated to making the pensieve, which was a longer and more tiresome process than it seemed in the book of instruction. Even for someone as clever and adept as Hermione, it still took a lot of work in putting basic potions ingredients together in just the right mixture to make a working pensieve, as it dealt in matters of the mind and was not meant to hold physical matter. As such, the magic required was more complicated, far above the expected Hogwarts level, and all in all took up a lot of Hermione's concentration, leaving Harry and Ron to fill in her absence. This meant taking longer shifts on guard duty than before, and also making some of the decisions that Hermione would otherwise have made, like where they would apparate next.

Ron in particular had taken to offering up more assistance than before, and a few times Hermione caught him looking at her in a particular way while she worked, as if he was trying to work up the nerve to apologize her and...maybe say something else as well. However, as far as she was concerned, Ron's earlier outburst was over and done with, and all she wanted now was to focus on what they would do next. It was enough for her to know that he had recognized the error of his ways and wasn't acting like that anymore, not even when he wore the locket. If one gut-wrenching outburst was what it took to make him stronger and better able to deal with the horcrux's effects, then maybe it was worth it. In any case, it made for a peaceful work environment not to have her two friends having a go at one another anymore.

By the time they had come to a decision about their next location about a week later, Hermione had finished crafting the makeshift pensieve—though, again, she warned the boys not to expect too much as it would only last for a few minutes. At the very least, they too would get a glimpse of the wizard in Harry's vision and Hermione could sort of capture that moment in time once they viewed it in the pensieve and, much like how a muggle photograph worked, they would have it as reference for when they could actually get a book to look up the wizard.

"Before we begin," Hermione said, setting the pensieve down on a table that night in the tent after everything had settled down. "Harry, is there anything else you could tell us about your visions recently and about where You-Know-Who is?"

Harry furrowed his brow in concentration. "Only that he's far from here, but...he's getting close to what he's looking for. I still have no idea who he's after though."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "In that case, this is our only chance."

Spilling the contents of what she had been working on into the basin, it glowed a bright blue in imitation of the pensieve in Dumbledore's office. Looking up at Harry, she nodded for him to begin, to which Harry pointed his wand to his temple and removed the memory of the vision. On the surface of the fluid appeared an image as Hermione stirred it around with her wand, murmuring incantations as she went in order to both uphold the image and to capture moments of it to preserve. She lingered on the image of a young man with straggly blonde hair, just as he was ducking out of a window. Because the memory was neither Harry's—nor Voldemort's, for that matter—it was very unclear, but at last she was able to capture it, blurred as it was, before the pensieve gave out. This was signaled by the liquid turning grey and murky, virtually unusable for anything else.

Hermione held up the image she had captured, which she had opted to transfigure into photograph form. On the photo in her hand, over and over again the scene played with the young man ducking out of the window, blurry, it was true, but hopefully enough to reference if they ever got the chance.

"Brilliant, Mione," Harry congratulated her. Ron, however, squinted unconvincingly at the photograph, but thankfully said nothing.

That night, after fending off Harry and Ron's protests that she should rest, Hermione finally took another turn on guard duty. True, she hadn't gotten much sleep in the past few days—but then, none of them had—but at least she had accomplished what she had set out to do and though it wasn't a major step forward in their search, it was something.

After emptying out the useless pensieve and tucking the basin into her bag in case it could be reused—and it had been quite a squeeze to get it in there past the opening, but otherwise it still fit—Hermione had prepared them all an afternoon snack, then gone out "in private" to bring Ron his. With a grin, Harry had made himself scarce, and Hermione appreciated the gesture and the opportunity to make sure that things were alright with Ron.

Once outside, Ron had brightened up a bit at seeing her, then gratefully accepted the snack she handed to him—a makeshift salsa sauce with some chips. He and Hermione had sat down together on a nearby log within their ward area, and gone over a few things. Ron had been thinking, he told her, and in the end he recognized the merit of her actions, even though he wished she would have gone about it differently.

"To be honest, I still don't see that we've really made much progress seeing as we don't know who the bloke is, but..." And he had almost reached for her hand when saying this, "I do appreciate that you're trying, Hermione."

The conversation had left Hermione feeling in equal parts warm and encouraged and yet strangely pressured to do more. It wasn't all on her, she knew, but if she didn't act soon, then Harry and Ron were sure to take it out on each other, and nine times out of ten proved that Ron would be the one to start the argument. Until now, things had been peaceful once she had been working on the pensieve, but now that one task was finished, until they found another one, they were virtually at a standstill, which was sure to irk all of them and make itself known in one ugly confrontation or another.

But further actions would involve some serious thought, and that was what Hermione set about doing as she paced around the perimeter of their wards at night. It didn't take much to figure out what they would need next though...

Now if only we had that book to find out who that wizard is, Hermione thought, purposely strategizing as she kept a warming charm in place around her body—to be awake and alert was one thing, but why be uncomfortable? Merlin, not that I thought we'd be needing it anyway, but if I had just realized or even had the chance to...

But forget it, Hermione! You can't waste a chance you didn't know you needed, and besides which, there's no use feeling bad about it now. The only time you'll be able to get a look at that book is once you get back into Hogwarts, and that's obviously out of question right now, so—

Pausing, she stood still a moment as a thought suddenly came to her. A dangerous thought which, while it didn't involve her going anywhere at the moment, was still something that Harry and Ron would object to. But they didn't know what she knew and couldn't assess the risks in the way that she could. And besides which...

Are there even any risks?

Of course there were, logically speaking, but then, was it any more or less risky than waiting to see Voldemort's plans unfold and not do anything to try and stop them? Hunting Horcruxes was well and good, but it was more of a plan in the long-term, seeing as they didn't know how many there were and how they might have a chance of destroying them in the first place; in the immediate future though, Harry's vision and the wizard in it might prove crucial, so Hermione's gut instincts were to act fast, no matter how far-fetched the solution might be. Heck, her trip into Diagon Alley had proven that well enough, and the boys had forgiven her for that, so surely they would forgive her making a small, shall we say, inquiry.

Once you've explained things, that is, Hermione thought, intending to do just that once she knew whether her shot in the dark would pay off or not. And so, with that thought in mind—and little else, to be honest, though she had spent a lot of time thinking things over, as was her nature—Hermione summoned her patronus.

Since securing the key, planting the duplicate, and otherwise making it through the weekend intact, Draco had spent most of his free time outside of class either hunting down the easier items on Snape's list or in the library, reading up on things as an excuse to avoid his fellow snakes. Out of disgust for the book he had abandoned in the Room of Requirement—which he would have to get back sooner or later, anyway—he had specifically avoided any books in the Restricted Section, those books that his high privilege would allow him to read without penalty. The less Draco knew about casting dark curses, the better.

Defending against them was a different matter however, and so Draco threw himself into impromptu D.A.D.A. readings, which was ironic since the class had ceased to exist at Hogwarts for that school year, despite protests from some of the teachers. Now, simply D.A. (Dark Arts) was taught for upper class students, over which the Carrow twins uniquely presided. Amycus and Alecto shared in the responsibility of the class, switching back and forth between that and Muggle Studies, which by now had of course become one long, strenuous hatred campaign. It was no wonder that some students were even starting to cast spells on each other, the purebloods vs. the mudbloods, with half-bloods as a reluctant referee between them. It hadn't escaped Draco's notice that the students from Slytherin House who acted out seemed to take particular pleasure in being inventive, and rarely ever got reprimanded for it.

Himself, he had to pretend like he was above it all to avoid getting involved, as though casting spells and publicly humiliating his fellow students was beneath him. No one questioned this and instead seemed in awe of him for it, treating him like he was superior when in truth, Draco was just too disgusted and horrified to ever want to view it. He couldn't ignore it, much as he tried to, but he didn't have to put himself at the middle of it.

And so, to the library he went, routinely burying his nose between pages and, to all onlookers, looking much too focused and intent for any of them to risk getting near him. As such, he had virtually an entire wing of the library to himself, which suited him fine.

It was his third night in a row attempting to get through A History of Dragons—a particularly mundane book as opposed to the malevolent content he was assumed to be reading—in the hopes of finding out how the heck he was supposed to acquire and/or make a "dragon whistle" (one of the items on Severus's list that the headmaster had given no specifics on, unlike some of the other items), when suddenly a white-blue form drifted, or rather, swam towards him.

Granger, he realized just as the patronus, a very clear otter, sat up on its hind legs and began to speak in a low, gruff voice.

"Can you talk?"

Although he was physically alone right at the moment, Draco didn't ever trust that he was ever fully alone except when in the Room of Requirement. So, ignoring the strange and sudden urge to answer right away, he tucked aside his books and then left the library without bothering to check them out, heading up to the seventh floor in his usual fashion and wishing for "a place to be alone".

This time, the Room of Requirement did not become a large space with its usual clutter of books, scrolls, and other magical artifacts, but instead a bare, marbled room with columns and a bubbling pool in the middle. As Draco stepped inside, he felt calmer, and reasoned that the room had shifted to meet more of his needs than one, the second being namely to make him feel more comfortable.

Nice touch for whoever built this place, Draco thought, sitting down with his back to one of the columns. Then, taking out his wand, he tried thinking of one of the happiest things he could, and summoned up his patronus.

Not that Hermione had expected a quick response from him—it was Malfoy, after all, regardless of their previous...er...interactions—but when a full fifteen minutes had passed with no response, she began to worry. Not for him, mind you, but rather that she had caught him at a bad time and now someone was questioning the prescence of her patronus. The voice had been disguised and patronuses weren't possible to track, so she would be safe as far as that went, but at the same time Hermione couldn't help but worry. Would someone possibly recognize what her patronus was and make the connection between her and Malfoy? Merlin, she hoped not!

Just as she had set about to pacing and was about to convince herself to give it up, out of the corner of her eye she caught a slight, blue-white light coming towards her, and couldn't help but grin in surprise and amusement as she saw what she could only call a miniature peacock strutting towards her. Cute was the first word she thought of to describe it, but then she remembered that her patronus wasn't exactly intimidating either, and this was Malfoy she was talking about, so the word was perhaps wholly unsuited.

Almost.

The voice that came from the peacock was undoubtedly Malfoy's though, as he hadn't bothered to disguise it. Either he assumed that she was alone or he didn't find anyone she was travelling with to be much of a threat. Well, beyond making fun of his patronus, what would Harry and Ron be able to do, anyway?

Still, just to be on the safe side, Hermione sent another patronus still using the disguised voice, asking Malfoy where he was and if he was alone.

"Relax, Granger, I'm in the Room of Requirement," the peacock said once Draco had sent it back. "Believe me, I don't want anyone listening to this conversation any more than you do. Are Potter and Weasley listening in, by the way?"

Hermione summoned up her patronus again, this time not bothering with a voice disguise either. "No." She tactfully decided not to mention that they were asleep. Then, before she could think up anything else to say, her otter had swum away, taking what was pretty much the shortest message in patronus history.

Draco himself was also confused when the otter came back with only a one-word answer, but this didn't stop him from having a response ready.

"I thought you wanted to talk, Granger. You sent out your patronus first, so I'll assume it's important." Why else would she bother contacting him, after all? Certainly not to get him to talk or assume that he would to fill in her silence or anything. Surely she was more logical than that and besides which, though Draco had agreed to this—Merlin only knew why, by the way—that didn't mean that he was going to pour out his innermost thoughts to her like people did to their therapists. It was almost laughable, that's how ridiculous it was.

"Er...yes, sorry." Wow, an apology from Hermione Granger? She was definitely after something. "I just wondered how to begin. What I need to know is...um...how are you?"

A small smile escaped Draco, though for the life of him he couldn't understand why. "That all, Granger? Not that you care, but your attempts at small talk aren't cutting it. Are we really going to go through this before you get around to telling me what it is you want?" He paused. "And, for what matter, why it is you want it?"

After a span of a few breaths, finally the otter swam back in with a response. "What I need is a book, Malfoy, and as for 'why', I'll tell you that when you bring it to me." A pause. "In person."

Draco realized of course that she was testing him. What was surprising was that he didn't mind it at all, and in fact found himself curious of where things could lead regarding this. A book, huh? Well, considering that it was Granger, this was hardly unusual, and yet...

"Must be a pretty special book then if you haven't been able to get your hands on it. What will is cost me to get it, and what exactly do I get in return if I agree to bring it?"

No pause this time, surprisingly. "It's called 'A History of Great Wizards and their Deeds', and it can be found in the Hogwarts library. It isn't even in the Restricted Section, so it should be easy to get ahold of. As for what you get in return, what do you want?" The end of what she had wanted to say was implied more by the tone than by the words: within reason, of course.

It was a good enough question though, and ordinarily Draco wouldn't know what to ask for, but now...

"What do you know about dragons, Granger?"

A short time later: "Why?"

"Quid pro quo, like I said," Draco went on. "I'll tell you more in person, but just be prepared to pay me back a favour for the book." He paused. "And before you ask, no, it won't involve Potter or Weasley in any way." At least, he didn't think so.

"...Alright. In that case, send me a patronus once you have the book, and then we'll arrange to meet."

"I'll have it, Granger," Draco replied. "Like you said, it should be easy to get ahold of, so I'll have it. Let's arrange things now and meet...say, tomorrow."

A much longer pause this time. "Okay. Around noon, alright? And where, exactly?"

"My lakehouse, same as before."

"Absolutely not! A neutral location, Malfoy."

How about Hogsmeade? We could go to The Three Broomsticks, discuss things over a Butterbeer, Draco thought ironically, put off with Granger being...well, Granger, making demands and putting on airs when though she was the one to contact him and ask him for something.

"How about Whitby Abbey? It's a popular tourist attraction, easy to find and relatively quiet this time of year."

It just figured that she'd suggest a muggle location, but Draco supposed that the privacy that would guarantee was ensured. Besides which, it was becoming increasingly clear that he would agree to this, whatever it was. And, in all honesty and plain speaking, it would save him a lot of time and effort having someone like Granger be the brains behind Severus's scheme with the list. If Draco could trust her enough to show it to her, that is.

"I'll see you there. Oh, and Granger? Read up on dragons until then." Only a couple of hours, but whether she did or didn't would be amusing to Draco either way. Aware that he was relapsing into his usual cocky ways, he was at both times feeling more like himself and yet disgusted with himself. Merlin, what was he doing?

So, summoning up another patronus to send after his first one, he added, "I'll bring you a book to look over on that."

Then, as far as Draco was concerned, this conversation was over, as he already felt himself putting forth more effort than...well, than he was accustomed to put forth for anything. The last time he had done so was for the mission that the Dark Lord had given him last year, but obviously this was much easier to do.

Easy. Merlin, when was the last time anything was like that? Draco wondered.

Then, just as he was about to leave the room, one last patronus showed up with one last message to deliver.

"I'll see you then...Thank you."

Read up on dragons? Merlin, he couldn't have been more casual about that if he tried, nevermind that what he was asking about wasn't exactly run-of-the-mill knowledge to come by. Fortunately though, Hermione did know quite a few things about dragons, having researched them at length during Harry's fourth year in particular preparation for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. But, of course, Malfoy didn't need to know that, and he had also offered to bring her a book to read up on the subject, so...

Their patronus exchange had been quick and to the point but, for Hermione at least, not as awkward or indifferent as she expected it to be. True, Malfoy had been borderline sarcastic to her, but she wondered if it was more out of habit than because he really meant it. The old Draco Malfoy from their schooldays acted that way probably for the joy of dampening everyone else's spirits, but the recent Draco Malfoy she had encountered seemed too worn out to put much thought or caring into what he said or how he acted; most likely, Hermione reasoned that he sometimes spoke that way out of impulse rather than actual intent.

Or was she giving him too much credit and forgetting that, simply because the fact she was muggleborn, Malfoy disliked her just from the principle of it. Granted though, he hadn't shown either prejudice or dislike towards her the last two times they had met—because, if so, then why return her wand and even heal her splinch wound? Taking it all in all, Hermione decided not to take offense at anything.

Not that it would help her much if she did though, especially as she was meeting with Malfoy tomorrow and, if he was to be trusted, he would be bringing along the book that she needed. It had been a calculated albeit quick decision to contact him, Hermione realized, but if it paid off, then once again she couldn't fault herself for the risk.

This will be the second time you've done this to Harry and Ron though, and may possibly be the third time you'll have to lie to them about it, depending on how things go, Hermione thought. Obviously, so many things can go wrong, but—

But Draco Malfoy was not that good an actor to fool her, not completely. Much as he could fake his confusion and even feint his way through the actions of healing her and giving her wand back, there were some things, like the paleness of his skin, bags under his eyes, and general sallowness of his figure that he couldn't lie about. There was something almost dead about him in both the times that she had come across him, and little by little Hermione couldn't help but note how he...sort of came back to life whilst talking to her, even if all that was being revived were his old ways of acting cocky and superior. And if she was right, then Malfoy, like any sane person, would welcome the change.

And she had offered him the chance to talk, that last time they had met. The suggestion had surprised her as much as it probably did him, and while Hermione had been somewhat selfish in making it, in that she wanted to keep Malfoy on hold as a potential ally, there had also been something sincere in how she felt sorry for him. Yes, she, muggleborn and poor Hermione Granger, felt sorry for pureblood and rich Draco Malfoy.

Now that she thought about it, they never had gotten around to talking out the whys of his current state, what had been happening around Hogwarts and with Voldemort in particular. Granted, Malfoy might not have told her much anyway, but Hermione felt herself growing keenly interested to discuss things and just to know, for more reasons than one. For the first time since she had met him, Hermione felt that there might be something about Malfoy that was actually human, and she couldn't deny gravitating towards meeting and talking with him to find out more.

Do you hear yourself, Hermione? And you wonder if Harry and Ron might think you mental if you told them? Let me answer that for you right now: it's a question of 'when', not 'if'!

And, with more of the same of these cheery and confused thoughts, Hermione spent the rest of her guard duty in silence.

A/N: Whew, third interaction down! A bit shorter this time, since they are after all just exchanging patronuses and favour for favour, but I think it's a good start to what will be a l-o-n-g process of gaining each other's trust and then maybe something more? So far, I'm keeping things impersonal between them and only giving more vulnerability and personal touches in bits and pieces, but I hope I'm handling things alright in assuming that it's going to take quite a bit of time to get them together. I mean, an enemies to friends story is hard enough, but enemies to lovers? Yeah, we need some serious slowness on the progression there.

Also, just in address to what your comments have been so far on the whole patronus idea, I really hope that I haven't disappointed anyone in not having Draco reach out to Hermione first. Oh, in the future he definitely will, no question about it, but at this stage of their relationship, I just don't see Draco ready to vent out his feelings just because, no matter how much he's holding in. Besides which, between the two of them, Hermione's much bolder and more opportunistic than Draco is, so having her "test out the waters" made the most sense. Again, that's not to say that we won't have some heart-to-hearts in the future, but at the beginning at least, we're still on more of a professional rather than personal level with these two, if that makes sense? What can I say, slow burn is slow but will be worth it. :)

Anyway, next chapter will include some of that "progression" as well, so look forward to that, and until then, please follow, favourite, review, the works!