Chapter 4.4
"This is quite fascinating. Is this how you stalked me last year Malfoy?" She said in awe as her eyes gaze on the enchanted parchment.
"I was not stalking you!" Draco tried to deny, but she just raise her brows at him in complete disbelief.
"I just happen to know where you were all the time." He shyly said not fully looking at her knowing gaze. Guilty git.
"And how did you get this anyway? Who IS Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs? Is this some type of Shugborough Inscription?"
"A what?"
"Nevermind. This is so befitting. Ma-rau-der." She rolled the title on her tongue. Such a curious way to name oneself.
She jumps up from her crouched self with renewed vigor. She felt like a bandit, with a map on her way to pillage a sweet innocent village. The big bad wolf.
"Little small snake, more like it." Oh fine. She didn't have the lungs to puff out three little piggies anyway.
"Three little piggies? Are we talking about your Gryff friends."
"What? No I was just..."
"They ARE easy to scare. Be careful though they have their very own Fairy God Mother, and that one can do more than just transfigure pumpkins into carriages."
"You're mixing up your fables old man. But.. I'll be careful I promise."
"See to it then little wolf."
"Aye aye Master"
"Well Malfoy. You said you saw me near the first floor girl's restroom. Well raid the way Robin Hood."
"Who? What are you babbling about you mad woman? I'm not going to a girl's loo! What nonsense are you talking about?" Was it a mistake to jump in on her crazy adventure, yes it sure was. And now Draco was having second thoughts about being a Gryffindor to this mayhem, he sure was not acting like a Snake that's for sure.
Still Hermione laments, that for all the magical prowess a pureblood has, they sure lack the wit she needs. But not one to be deterred, Draco Malfoy just became a new and good project for her. And the first step, demuggling the pureblood. He looked wary with her shit eating grin she's now sporting.
"Oh Draco, Draco, Draco..." She sang as she grabs his wrist and shuffles towards the moving staircase. "You my dear blonde boy, have so much to learn, and we will start with all the prevailing vernacular of today's time."
Draco was shuffling awkwardly behind her, his long legs forced into tiny fast steps. Still he obediently followed, too shocked in awed disbelief by the hand tightly wrapped around his arm.
…
"Granger…" Draco whispered from complete shock.
"Yep?"
"You can speak Parseltongue…" Draco faintly said, staring at a gaping hole in the floor.
"Yep!"
"Hooww?" He said in disbelief. He was not expecting this at all. He thought she was just slacking off or cheating her way through class or something Granger-like and sneak into the Restricted Section. He did not expect a secret passageway, nor the little snake lazily perched on her neck like a cat, and definitely not the muggleborn speaking in Parseltongue. He felt like fainting, then puking, or vice versa.
"Come on, there's a latch you have to reach down there. And I'm too short to reach it, I really hate going down the slide so you have to pull that lever to reveal the stairs…" He didn't move, still recovering from his shocking discovery. "MALFOY! Come on!"
Upon descending, the two we're welcomed by a revolting smell. "Salazar's Sack! What is that putrid smell Granger? Is this what you do? Go down the pipes into the sewage. This is just vile." He covered his face with both hands, and tried to inhale as little as possible.
"You're a wizard, aren't you?" She rolled her eyes at him and cast them both a bubble-head charm. There that'll do, it was quite disgusting but once they pass the rubbled cave there was no need for the charm.
After passing by a series of Parseltongue-warded doors, and Hermione translating every hiss she made (which was not that hard cause all she was apparently hissing was "open big door" - which was not creative at all) they settled in an atrium with a marbled interior. Great Corinthian columns encase cylindrical crystals which illuminates the hall. He was impressed, this is the kind of opulence Malfoy Manor has.
"How did you find this Hermione?" He asked while wandering in awe at the architecture. She didn't answer right away but still he followed the petite witch to a series of ante-chamber. When they enter another dark heavy-set of metal doors, where she hiss "open metal door", he noticed they were in some sort of a chantry, with an altar in the middle facing an unremarkable effigy. He would think it a plain stone if not for the energy it was emitting, and the thing was pulsing with so much of it.
"It called to me." She said devoid of emotion it almost sounded trance-like. "That thing, it calls to me, so I followed it down here." She said softly.
"And the Parseltongue?" He had to ask.
"Something I was born with."
"But Potter…"
"I don't know how he has it also."
"You sound like you know how you can speak it." He said as he stared right into her. Waiting for a flicker, a clue to the riddle before him.
"I do Draco." She said with such calm. However her short answer prevented him from asking more. They were content standing there in silence. The thing was unremarkable but the energy coming off it relaxes them.
After a few moment of playing statue, Draco broke their silence once more. "Awfully unlike you to trust me with this Granger. Why did you bring me here?" Because truly, after some contemplation, he realized that he should be the last person for her to bring here. She should be with Potter and his sidekicks, her Gryffindors, especially having to share a talent of speaking to scaly reptiles. Yet here they are, secrets unfolding before him. He was afraid of the answer.
She blinked twice before bluntly saying. "I need a life sacrifice." SHIT!
"And.." He was too afraid of this, will she really do what he's thinking. How could he have been stupid and follow her oh so willingly to an unknown part of the castle where no one can hear him, no witnesses. None of his housemates know where he was headed, only said he was off to the library for some research. And he couldn't recall any other students, especially not the Gryffindors after Potions. Draco gripped his wand harder, his gaze mutinous and not just because of the witch before him, he was blindsided because of his foolishness, his own ignorance. His grandfather did warn him, he is a scion, and should have never let his guard down. If it came down to it, he will not hesitate to hurt the witch.
"Your mother… She's a Black right." She asked before facing him. The two were staring into each other, Draco's eyes went colder at the mention of his mother. When he was angry before, he was right on deadly now.
"Yes. What of it?" Draco said in a clipped and cold voice. He's trying really hard not to strike first, but Salazar she's making it too hard.
"I need someone of Black blood to complete my... my project Draco. Someone pure Black. And I think you or your mother can help me. Can you help me Draco? If you do, we will never forget and I will return it with a boon."
For a moment Draco was shocked she knew of magical boon. Those are not casually given, and a magical boon is binding, unable to be fulfilled and one sacrifice a chance to lose their magic. Living a life as a muggle with no chance of healing. But all those thoughts halted when she said "we".
"Why my blood?" He asks, because there was no way in hell he would give his mother's blood.
"I need to find Sirius Black. He's the only one among the Sacred Old Families to come from pure Black Blood."
"Why? I don't understand... How do you know all this Granger? Wh.. who are you?" His words shaking against his teeth.
"Someone who's magical boon can give tremendous prosperity to your family."
He was suppose to quiver when he looked straight into the golds of her hazel eyes. Like his father and grandfather before him. But Draco has yet to be subjected to predator like eyes. Draco thought he was just uncovering her silly school secrets only to unknowingly open Pandora's box.
