Chapter 12 - Thoughts Between Tasks

It was no surprise to anyone that Ron reacted badly at what Hermione had done. What was surprising was the reason that he was mad though, to which the fact that Hermione showed up with the book in hand did nothing to placate his anger. The situation that she and Harry had to face was unlike any of their arguments from before.

"You seem to be doing more and more of that nowadays!" Ron accused, running his hands through his messy hair. "But you know what's different this time? This time you decide to tell Harry about it and assume that's enough!" He turned to glare at Harry. "And you defend her when you hardly know what it's about yourself! Just let her pull all the legwork on what we're doing while you stand back and watch, safe and sound!"

"Look, what are you implying?" Harry snapped, standing up from where he had previously been sitting with Hermione at a table. "That I don't do my fair share of work around here?"

"'Fair share?'" Ron echoed. "You're the one who started us off on this bloody mission! You're the one who's got You-Know-Who inside your head, you're the one who Dumbledore told about the Horcruxes, so you're the one who should be leading us forward, not Hermione! Don't you think that you maybe rely on her too much?"

"Oh, and you don't?" Harry challenged. "I think you made that more than perfectly clear, and—"

"Boys, it doesn't really matter!" Hermione interjected, slamming the book down on the table and drawing both Harry and Ron's attention to her. Glaring at both of them, she pointed down to the book, which she had just flipped to the page on the wizard they were looking for: Gellert Grindelwald. "As long as we make progress, who cares who's doing the work!"

She looked at each of them in turn. "We're all doing the best we can right now and it isn't time to split hairs about who's doing what! And if I'm tired, I'll tell you. Honestly!"

Then, in a huff, Hermione sat back down again and went about reading the details on the page. It wasn't often that she blew up like that at her friends, but once she did, the argument was effectively over, as neither of them stood a chance of going up against her logic; and besides which, right now both of them wanted to find out what progress they could be expected to make based on what Hermione found out.

Only after they had gone over the possibilities of what Voldemort might be after from Grindelwald, had dinner, and then arranged so that Ron would finally take a turn on guard duty at night while Hermione wore the locket, did Hermione and Harry discuss in more exact detail what had happened earlier that day. Hermione still didn't mention that it was Malfoy whom she'd met, as that might only start things up again and even Harry would feel betrayed with an explanation this late in coming, but at least she managed to explain the gist of what she hoped from their relationship: that they had gained a potential new ally.

"This person is actually in Hogwarts right now and they're not under watch or suspected," Hermione finished. "By the looks of things, they can also come in and out of Hogwarts at will, so there are possibilities we might consider there."

"Do you mean to have them hunt down a horcrux for us?" Harry asked apprehensively. "You haven't told them about the horcruxes, have you, Mione?"

"What? No, Harry, of course not!" Hermione replied. And, truth be told, it had never even crossed her mind to mention the horcruxes to Malfoy! Granted, she was beginning to trust him enough to consider asking for his help again should she need it, but for something as important as what the trio were doing, it wasn't mentioned casually. Besides which, were there possibly any chances that Malfoy knew about the horcruxes already? It didn't seem a likely thing that Voldemort would mention to his followers, since, loyal to him or not, no Death Eater was exactly trustworthy not to betray him. Actually, it might even be in the trio's best interests if Voldemort's followers turned against him...

Not a chance in hell of that happening now though, Hermione thought. After all, as day by day passed and they only heard more and more negative reports from Ron's radio, there was nothing to suggest instability in Voldemort's new rule; he only gained more and more power. Any traitors on his side might be ideal though, and even just one key "mole" might be enough to turn the tides...

Hermione just wasn't sure if she could count on Malfoy to be that mole, or if she even felt comfortable in purposely putting someone at risk like that. Anyone on the dark side might be evil enough to manipulate someone else for their own gain, but Hermione certainly wasn't.

And besides which, on the personal side of things, she...she wasn't sure that she was thinking purely in terms of advantage versus disadvantage with regards to Malfoy anymore either. With each meeting with him since that first time he had let her go, he was becoming more and more human to her, a person with feelings, and therefore he no longer made up part of the "them" category.

Granted, that could change at any moment, but so far he had given her no reason to think that.

"Good," Harry sighed, leaning back on his cot. "Look, I'm glad we have a new ally, but things are still very dangerous. If possible, I don't want to drag anyone else into what we're doing right now."

Hermione nodded, understanding. At first, Harry had actually been about to go through everything alone, until of course both she and Ron had insisted on coming along. There were others, of course, like Neville, Luna, and Ginny, who would also have wanted to come along if Harry would have allowed them, but he didn't want to put anyone in danger and they'd respected that. Even now, after months of not seeing them, Hermione guessed that they would all offer up their help in an instant if only they knew where the trio was right now.

It's too dangerous for them in ways that it isn't for Malfoy, Hermione thought. And that just made him an ideal ally, with the added bonus that no one would suspect him. After all, the rivalry between him and Harry had been practically the main entertainment for everyone in their year, so to suddenly have them switch from enemies to friends was inconceivable.

That being said though, Hermione thought, no one would have suspected that she and Malfoy would ever get along either, even if only for the period of one or two conversations. If anything, she technically had more of a reason for hating Malfoy, as it was her whom he had called a mudblood and belittled just because of how little muggleborns merited in his eyes. Did those same rules and prejudices still apply to him though, even a little bit? Hermione just couldn't see any of it present in their interactions together and, for now at least, it wasn't something that she wanted to question him on.

When he wants to talk, he'll talk, Hermione thought, settling back into her own cot for a night's rest. She desperately hoped that she wouldn't be plagued by nightmares whilst wearing the locket, but was prepared nevertheless to have to go through that. Everything was being done in turns now, so they'd all have to endure—and Harry needed the rest more than any of them.

Rest. That's something he doesn't seem to get a lot of these days, she continued, remembering how Malfoy had looked. Well-groomed, of course, and still every inch a Malfoy, but...not even a shade of who he had been before. At times, perhaps it flared up again, but when there was nothing to provoke him, Draco Malfoy just seemed mellowed out and indifferent. Not a haughty kind of indifference like before, mind you, but almost...defeated.

Merlin, I really hope he opens up soon, Hermione couldn't help thinking. She was surprised a bit at her own inner revelation, but that didn't make it any less true. Yes, she wanted to hear from Draco Malfoy again, and this time it wasn't just so that she could find out something useful from him.

Once back at Hogwarts, partly so that he wouldn't waste time and also because he wanted to hold off on reviewing his conversation with Granger—and the feelings that were rising up in him as a result—Draco headed directly to the kitchens beneath the castle, there to gain the help of one of the house elves in securing the key to Hagrid's house. The half-giant gameskeeper was now teaching a class, as far as Draco knew, so even though it involved ditching his own class and thus raising questions yet again on where he was going and what he was doing, there was no better time than now to search out the hut.

Usually, the house elves at Hogwarts were answerable only to the headmaster or the teachers, and what they did for students usually didn't extend beyond bringing them meals or cleaning up their rooms. Any other actions, even if it was only to fetch a student a book or deliver a personal letter, was subject to inspection by the headmaster. An "abuse", Dumbledore might have called it.

But, since it was Severus who had set him this task in the first place, Draco didn't think the new headmaster would question his actions even if they were reported; and if he did, at least Draco had an explanation handy. Actually, he was planning to request an audience with Severus at the end of the day anyway, to confirm just what this list business was about, so being summoned to his office earlier wouldn't be a setback.

It didn't mean much to you before you had that conversation with Granger, Draco couldn't help thinking. Yes, you were curious, but you were willing to do it as something that gave you purpose. Now all of a sudden you can't wait to find out what it's all about and you've got only her to thank.

Granger.

Shaking the thought off before it went too far, Draco quickly selected a house elf and instructed them to get him the key to Hagrid's hut. At first, of course the elf was reluctant to do something that was objectionable to a professor, but all Draco had to do was glare down at her and suddenly the elf was all helpful and vanished quickly to do her task. Fear. Not a tool he ever preferred using, but an effective one if he wanted to act quickly.

A couple minutes later and with the key in hand, Draco made his way through the castle that was mostly empty in the corridors now as everyone was in class. He got to Hagrid's hut without any trouble, but once inside, didn't know just where he should start looking for the whistle. Granted, Draco viewed the half-giant as kind of dimwitted, and the cleanliness (or lack thereof) inside his hut didn't do much to change his mind; as such, he reasoned that the whistle could haphazardly be anywhere, which in turn also made it harder to find.

Whipping out his wand, Draco tried to accio it—which didn't work, unsurprisingly.

Draco supposed that he could just search at random for it, but he didn't exactly have an unlimited amount of time at his disposal, given that the period was almost over. If he thought he could hear the whistle, he could have uttered a simple wind charm and could find it that way, but one of the reasons that a dragon whistle was so unique was, obviously, that only dragons had the necessary pitch to hear it. As such, that was out.

But maybe...

Spotting a nearby blanket, Draco yanked it off Hagrid's seat and spread it down on the floor. Then, using a spell that he had first learned from Crabbe of all people, Draco enchanted the blanket so that it acted as a kind of magnet. Unlike ordinary magnets though, the properties of this spell didn't apply just to metallic objects; instead, the witch or wizard who cast the spell could specify what they wanted the spell to attract, a kind of "all of the above" accio. Crabbe usually used it for bringing sweets to his plate when he couldn't be bothered to stand up and grab some, but Draco adjusted the spell to his own purposes to attract small, wooden objects. He wasn't sure of it working, of course, since the wood from the dragon sanctuaries most definitely had special properties, but if he counted on the fact that it was still wood after all...

Almost immediately, several objects from around Hagrid's hut sprang up from their places and then cluttered in a pile in the middle of the blanket, drawn by the magical force of the spell. Draco barely dodged a pair of wooden clogs that sailed over his head, and then hurried to stand by the front door, the only area out of range. Once the spell was done summoning all the possible small wooden objects in Hagrid's hut, every item fell limp on the blanket and lay there, free for Draco's inspection. He knelt down and looked through everything, which for the most part consisted of wooden kitchen utensils, a couple of knickknacks, and otherwise useless junk.

Digging through the pile, Draco was starting to think that maybe he had gotten ahead of himself in thinking that such a difficult item would in fact be easy to find, whether at Granger's suggestion or otherwise, when finally, next to a set of keys on a wooden ring, Draco spotted a whistle. Offhand, apart from the dull grey colour of the wood and the intricate markings on the side, it looked like an ordinary whistle, same as any; but upon closer inspection, when Draco peered inside through the slit at the top, he noticed that it was empty.

Nothing to create pitch, he thought. Which meant, as compared to any other whistle that Hagrid might have for calling giant dogs, hippogriffs, and whatever else he took care of, this specific whistle wasn't for average use.

He'd know for sure when re-checking the book, Draco decided, pocketing the whistle. He was just about to start tidying up any trace of his presence there, when suddenly Hagrid himself was behind him, having ended his class earlier that day.

"Malfoy!" the half-giant thundered in surprise and anger. "What're ya doin' here?"

In earlier days, for such a violation of privacy, Hagrid might've reported Draco the headmaster—obviously, now that action was null and void. But Draco couldn't have the gameskeeper raising suspicion of his actions to the other teachers, so he had to act fast.

Pointing his wand at Hagrid, Draco uttered the first spell he could think of: "Petrificus totalus!"

Unfortunately though, as Hagrid was half-giant, he did retain some magical resistance against any spells; the result of this was that the spell only worked to petrify him from the waist down, leaving him conscious and aware. It put all thoughts of using a memory charm on him out of Draco's mind, as there was no point in trying it if it wouldn't erase him from the half-giant's memory completely. There might be some consequences later on, but it was too late to do anything about it now...

"Why you—!"

"It's alright, Hagrid," Draco breathed, edging around him and out of his reach, his wand still pointed. "It'll wear off. Maybe until then you'll calm down enough to realize that it's best if no one knows about this." And, though ordinarily a student would be instantly expelled for using a spell on a teacher, it was evident that this year and for Draco especially, the same rules didn't apply. Hagrid himself seemed to realize this, and a slight defeated look came over his features.

"Dammit, Malfoy, just what are you doing here?!" Hagrid repeated, trying helplessly to turn around and make a grab for him as Draco neared the door.

"Let me put it this way, Hagrid," Draco said, nodding down to the blanket at the half-giant's feet. "I didn't find what I was looking for." Then, as a spur of the moment decision, he uttered a quick charm that put everything back in its proper place and transfigured one of the wooden spoons into something that looked very much like the whistle he had just taken. As such, even if Hagrid were to look around to see what was missing, he wouldn't immediately realize—and by that time Draco would have the real whistle safely in his family's vault.

This is already more trouble than it's worth, the young Malfoy couldn't help thinking as he left Hagrid to his own devices, struggling to get free within his own house. Severus, it's time you gave me some answers...

That night though, as he headed towards the headmaster's office (after having taken the rest of the afternoon off to put the whistle in his family's vault, indeed confirming that it was a dragon whistle), Draco was intercepted by Alecto, who informed him that Snape was out of Hogwarts at the moment. That didn't suit Draco in the slightest, but he supposed there was nothing for it. As soon as Severus got back though, he did expect an audience, that much was sure.

Turning on his heel, Draco headed up to the Room of Requirement instead of down to the Slytherin common room, as usual because he needed a private place to think. Crabbe and Goyle were sure to question it as, dimwitted though they were, lately Draco had been practically avoiding them in his haste to get headway on the list of items. As far as they knew, he was on a mission for the Dark Lord, but it was only a matter of time before they started questioning just what that mission was, and maybe slip up and mention his continuous absences to someone else. Draco happened to know that both his "friends" had gone under the wing of Amycus, taking private lessons with him in D.A. for after-school hours. It was obviously just an attempted status boost, but Draco didn't want to give them even the temptation to open their big mouths in the hopes of impressing their new teacher.

As far as Draco was concerned, perhaps in many ways he wasn't much better than they were, especially as he had also been a member of Umbridge's interrogation squad in fifth year. True, that was back before, and consisted of Draco practically being a different person and focusing all of his hatred on Potter and his friends, but now, if it came down to it, would he rat out his fellow students for a status boost?

If he thought it would get the Dark Lord to leave his family alone, then yes, chances were that Draco would throw someone under the bus. But...

Not if that someone's Granger or Potter. They're the ones who've got the best chance of ending this war and besides...

Besides which, Draco couldn't put up the front even to himself anymore that he really had anything against Granger. That first time they had met and he had let her go, Draco had done it more as a spur of the moment thing than actually calculating any moves beyond that. He didn't want the responsibility of turning her in, though at the time he hadn't had any other considerations. Now though, after she had reached out to him and they had talked and he was able to put a set of characteristics other than mutual hatred towards her persona...

Yes, things were quite different indeed, and Draco knew that he definitely wouldn't be giving up any secrets that he learned from Granger. Or, heck, if this kept up, whatever he would learn, he wouldn't share with anyone. If even Severus himself asked how Draco had figured out how to use the list, Draco planned on lying. It would be feeble for him to attempt it, perhaps, but he had to try.

A lot of this free time would best be spent improving my occlumency, Draco reflected once alone in the Room of Requirement, which was now shaped as the same white marble setup as before. At least then I have a better chance of shielding my mind from anyone who thinks to look. I could ask Severus, but he's not here now and he doesn't have much time and besides which, what if he...

So far, not even Bellatrix had suspected Draco of anything in any way—except maybe for a bit of cowardice when he hadn't immediately killed Dumbledore at her goading last school year—but that didn't mean that he could continue things as they were without end. Sooner or later, someone would start taking a closer look at what he did, and Draco had no backup planned for that possibility...

Unless, of course...

But...no, no he absolutely could not think to bring Granger into this! True, as soon as the thought crossed his mind it was becoming a temptation for him to contact her regarding this, since it was his turn anyway—not that they were taking turns, Merlin forbid!—but this and that were different things! Granger had contacted him initially for access to a book that she needed for some reason or other and that had been simple. Now, if Draco contacted her regarding this, not only would he be owing her one—though he felt he already did since her help on finding the whistle proved invaluable, though Draco wasn't about to vocalize that—but it would also allow Granger possible access to his mind, and that was something that Draco wasn't prepared to deal with from anyone.

Still though, better her than Severus and definitely better her than Aunt Bellatrix or the Dark Lord...

Draco's clouded expression softened for a moment as he reasoned that, their past behind them for now, Granger was probably the only person he knew in any close degree that wouldn't hurt him. Of course, there was his mother as well, but she was being watched and besides which, Draco wasn't sure about her capabilities at occlumency. This of course made Granger the only safe option, but...

Merlin, if she should see some of the things that went on inside his head!

The whole point of occlumency was to shield one's mind from being penetrated, but Draco was under no illusion that Granger would manage it. Heck, she had even mastered nonverbals, some of the hardest magic there was, and had been a master at it even in their sixth year! That kind of mental prowess was something unmatched by anyone else their age, and Draco knew that, with those skills, penetrating his mind would be like a walk in the park for her.

That being said though...Draco admitted that he couldn't imagine that Granger would find anything to use against him. Heck, she'd already had him at her mercy once before—outside of school, that is—and she hadn't acted on it, so...even to just a slight degree...could he possibly trust her?

Perhaps, if he was really serious about improving his occlumency, he would have no choice...

But what she'll see and find out about me... Draco mused, his brows furrowed in worry. "Embarrassment" would be the least of his worries if Granger of all people found him out! (More than she had already, but he would rather not dwell on that point.)

The idea was firmly rooted in his mind though and, despite reasoning back and forth with himself for the remainder of the evening, by the end Draco was strongly inclined towards trying it. Just...just a try with no commitment and...well, maybe Granger would take it as his finally "reaching out" to her for a proper conversation. Would that satisfy her curiosity at last?

A/N: Not to disappoint readers here, but I find that it's better to be honest earlier rather than later: Hermione and Draco are not going to practice legilimency and occlumency together. The chief reason for this is that occlumency is one of the few skills that Hermione is not listed as having, since she's never been taught, and so I'm going based off of that in the storyline so that she won't know how to do it. I'm not saying that she can't, since obviously she's strong enough and has the mental capabilities for it, but the fact that she hasn't been taught does bar her from being able to practice with Draco.

So, why introduce this concept at all, you may ask? Well, the further I write into this story and take into consideration Hermione and Draco's personalities, the less likely I find it that Draco would just "reach out" to talk to Hermione at random, no matter how desperate he is. When they get closer, sure, he'll be spilling a lot of things and whatnot, but until then, I just don't see Draco making himself vulnerable like that without good reason. This attempt at practicing shielding his mind is as much a personal excuse for Draco as it is for the story to make sense, but rest assured that we'll get tons of, shall we say, emotional bonding without the need to penetrate into the other's mind.

As always, please let me know your opinions in the reviews—and all new readers, do be sure to follow and favourite and leave a little review too! Thank you so much to all my dedicated readers who never fail to leave a review that just brightens my day and gets those creative juices flowing!