Chapter 4

Days passed by and they eventually managed to get through the entire tome on family magic, though they could already tell that they were hitting a dead end. 80 percent of the magic in the book had already gone extinct and the remaining magic was easily crossed off their list, afterall Hermione had never given a prophecy, spoken to a snake or been able to change her appearance. She couldn't control an element like some families nor heal any injuries without a wand, the list of possibilities was growing shorter and shorter.

'You can't be serious?' Hermione asked incredulously. 'There's no way that I'm going to be able to do that.'

'It's on the list.' Draco shrugged, the long sheet of parchment still in his hand. 'Listen, if you're too scared to do it then we can just move on.'

'I'm not scared, Malfoy.' She said darkly. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. 'How am I supposed to do this again?'

Harry glanced over at the parchment and leafed through the book in his hands to the relevant page. 'Just close your eyes, focus your mind and picture an animal in your mind.'

'Which animal?' She asked, biting her lip nervously.

'Apparently it's different for everyone, your instincts should draw you to an animal.' Harry answered, still scanning through the long passage. 'If this works you should be able to summon and dismiss your familiar at will.'

'It's still not going to work.' Hermione frowned. 'You don't know how badly I wanted a pet when I was younger.'

'Just do it Granger.' Draco snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. 'There's still plenty more to go through.'

Hermione huffed and sat down on the floor of the empty charms classroom, closing her eyes. She tried as hard as she could to focus on an animal, but none seemed to be coming to her with any particular strength. She huffed again and tried to picture a bluebird, trying to get the cynical voice in the back of her mind to quiet. With another deep breath she poured all of her focus in on the bird she was picturing. She could almost feel a tingle in her fingers, which was steadily building. She opened her eyes excitedly to see nothing before her, though the tingle in her fingers stopped almost as soon as her eyes opened. She closed her eyes again, focusing back on the bird, though the tingling in her fingers didn't grow any more intense.

Her eyes flew open to see Draco with his wand out, laughing almost silently to himself, Harry joining in loudly when he noticed his wand out.

'That wasn't funny.' Hermione scowled. 'I really thought I was doing it!' She stood quickly and advanced on Draco, who had his hands in the air.

'I couldn't resist, okay.' He spoke through his laughs, trying to keep his face straight.

'What if that was the one?' She exclaimed, hitting his arm.

'You said yourself that you'd always wanted a pet.' He said defensively. 'We're just going through everything to be thorough.'

'You're an asshole.' Hermione growled, moving back to the middle of the room.

Draco settled his laughter and turned his attention to the list in his hand. 'Just a few more.' He assured her, showing Harry the relevant page number.

'This one's a no go.' Harry frowned, closing the book. 'It's innate. Same with the rest of them on the list.' He walked over to Hermione and handed over the book, wrapping his arms around her. 'I'm really sorry Hermione.'

'I'm not giving up.' Hermione steeled herself, determination burning in her eyes. 'You said a lot of the magic is extinct right?' She turned her attention to Draco, opening up to the first page of the book. 'How likely is it that Harry's theory was right?'

'I suppose it has to be now.' Draco shrugged.

Hermione nodded, flicking through pages of the book. 'If someone was waiting for me to lose the magic then it has to be something dangerous right?' She asked, sitting down on one of the desks. 'Voldemort was at his peak of power when I was born. It only makes sense that it would be something they'd want to keep out of his hands. Though we shouldn't ignore the possible political motivations, who knows how many family seats are empty in the Wizengamot.'

'Almost forty.'' Draco answered, taking a seat next to her. 'That's a hold over from the Wizard's Council though, there were 140 seats, divided evenly between Nobility and the Wizengamot, they functioned as advisors, governors, and in some cases, dissidents. Before the introduction of the Statute of Secrecy many of those Council Members were executed, as well as their family members, by the English throne, allegedly for treason. By the time the statute of secrecy and the Ministry of Magic came along, it had already merged with the Wizengamot since there was no King or Queen to guide it, and there was a statute in place that would revert the Wizengamot back to the Wizard's Council and dissolve the Ministry of Magic completely.'

'What are the conditions of the statute?' Hermione asked, her head tilted to the side slightly.

Draco took a deep breath, blinking rapidly as he tried to recall the information. 'The loss, dissolution or downfall of the Ministry of Magic. The return of the royal bloodline. The presence of more than 50 occupied house seats, though that one's almost impossible to happen, even if you are a descendant of one of them.'

'So what do we do?' Hermione asked, biting her lip again.

'It's only two weeks until the christmas break and most of the magic in here won't be safe to use in school.' Draco nodded to himself. 'You could come home with me and we can try to experiment there. It'd have to be under polyjuice though, you wouldn't survive a trip home otherwise.'

'Why?' Hermione asked, though she suspected she already knew the answer.

'Because Voldemort's there.' He answered, his eyes locking with Harry. 'He won't be able to see through the Polyjuice.'

'There's not enough time to brew enough for that.' Hermione shook her head.

'Not for you, no, though my mother and Snape could probably get us enough to last the break.' Draco cut in, turning his attention to Hermione. 'I have a few friends who could help, and with mother's help we could limit your exposure to anyone but the two of us so you wouldn't have to be taking it every hour.'

'Crouch managed to do it for almost a year.' Harry pointed out. 'We could do it for a few weeks.'

'I can arrange a meeting with some friends we can trust.' Draco suggested, jumping down from the table. 'Just find us a place where we won't be interrupted and I can have them here in twenty minutes.'

'Just bring them back here, I can have someone run a distraction to make sure Umbridge or Filch don't find us.' Harry nodded, heading out of the classroom. 'You stay here Hermione, just don't get yourself caught while I'm gone.'

Hermione nodded mutely and turned her attention to the book in her hands, offering a quick nod to Draco as he too left the room. She scanned through page after page, the hopeless feeling in her gut sinking deeper and deeper. She still couldn't comprehend any reason, justifiable or otherwise, that this had happened to her. If it wasn't for the adoption records she would have simply assumed that one of her parents was actually a squib and just hadn't been told. But that wasn't the case, and despite every hope in her heart, she couldn't shrug off the feeling that her parents had been charmed into loving her.

'Why have you brought us to Granger?' A voice sneered as the door opened. She looked up from her book to see a host of Slytherins walking into the classroom. Pansy Parkinson had been the one to speak, though the fact she was flanked by another four Slytherins, even if one of them was Draco, didn't fill her with confidence.

'I'll explain once Potter gets here.' He shrugged nonchalantly.

It took a few tense minutes for Harry to get back to the classroom. The Slytherins had been muttering to each other, not that Hermione particularly wanted to know what they were saying. What you don't know won't hurt you and all that.

'The Weasley twins are causing some chaos down on the third floor.' He announced, stuffing a thick stack of parchment into his pocket. 'Are you sure we can trust them?' He asked, eyeing Pansy with caution.

'I trust them.' Draco nodded, taking a deep breath. 'I assume you heard about the commotion on the quidditch pitch a few weeks ago.'

'Some idiot didn't do the binding spell over the summer and thought it would be a good idea to do it in the open.' Pansy sneered. 'Don't tell me you were involved in that idiocy?'

'I was.' Hermione spoke up, still clutching the tome in her hands tightly.

'Nice joke Draco.' One of the boys laughed.

'Theo.' Draco spoke, trying to keep his tone even. 'This isn't a joke.'

'Like hell it's a joke.' The other boy yelled. 'The hell are you doing mixing with this lot? Do you want to get killed?'

'I think we should all stop butting in and let Draco say his piece.' A blond girl cut in, inclining her head respectfully.

'Thanks Daph.' Draco smiled. 'Granger isn't a muggleborn. We've already done the binding ritual so I can confirm she has some type of family magic. We just don't know what it is.'

'I think you can appreciate that we're not in a position to be sharing family secrets.' Daphne said dangerously. 'Mudblood or not.'

'I'm not asking for that.' He shook his head in return. 'I need you to help me smuggle Granger into my house over the break. We'll be needing hairs.'

Pansy looked horrified while the other three seemed to be considering the option. 'I'm not letting a mudblood parade around with my face.'

'She'd be parading around with much more than your face.' Theo chuckled, glancing at Pansy's chest.

'You all know what's going on in the manor and I was hoping you'd be willing to help me.' Draco shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling rather dejected.

'My family's taking a trip to Antwerp to visit my mother's side.' Daphne spoke up, taking a brush out of her bag and running it through her hair. 'I'll have Mother trim my hair at the beginning of the break and send you more.'

Pansy was positively flabbergasted. 'You can't be serious.' She shrieked. 'That thing is going to pretend to be you for weeks. Who knows what she's going to do with your body.'

'You know what family magic means, Pans.' Daphne snapped. 'That means very ancient family ties and I don't plan on putting my foot in my mouth in front of someone like that.' She walked around Pansy, ignoring her open mouth, and handed Hermione the brush. 'We'll be arriving back three days before term starts. You're more than welcome to spend that time with me since we can't have two of me running around in the country.'

'Thank you.' Hermione took the brush from Daphne with an appreciative smile.

'You're all mad.' Pansy exclaimed. 'You can't go running around the Dark Lord under Polyjuice, he'd kill you both in a second.'

'Which is why I'm still asking for your help.' Draco urged her, walking over and taking one of her hands. 'Please visit the manor over the break, we need to keep his suspicions off of Hermione.'

Pansy wanted to scream and protest and throw a few curses at Draco, but she couldn't ignore the pleading in his eyes. 'I'll do it.' She spoke quietly. 'For you, not her.'

'Thank you.' He sighed.

'I'm already covering for one of your secrets, why not add another.' She shrugged. 'Though I expect a very ostentatious gift for Christmas this year.'

'I'll be sure to spend as much of my father's money as possible.' He smiled, turning his attention to the two boys. 'Are you in?'

'Why the hell not?' Theo grinned, clapping the rather silent boy on the shoulder. 'Blaise?'

He seemed to be mulling it over, rolling his eyes at the expectant ones looking back at him. 'Sure. Any excuse to get away from my mother's new husband.'

'Perfect.' Draco clapped his hands together. 'I'll owl mother and have it all arranged.'

'Thank you.' Hermione whispered, still clutching the hairbrush in her lap. 'I don't know how I'll repay you for taking such a huge risk.'

Pansy shrugged and flipped her hair over her shoulder. 'Be from a very wealthy extinct family with some exquisite jewels in their vault.' She smiled, making her way from the room.

'That's about as close as you'll get to a 'you're welcome' from her.' Draco whispered loudly to her, the whole room filling with laughs as the Slytherins departed.

'We'll figure this out.' Harry promised, taking Hermione in his arms. 'I promise.'