4 Nov 2016: Hi, remember me? No? That's okay. Here, have a cookie. *hands you a cookie* So, I sat around thinking for the last month I was suffering from writer's block only to discover when I sat down to write the stuffing out of this story, I'd actually finished the part I thought as giving me trouble. Yeah. Sorry. *looks sheepish* So, uh, here's the chapter!

Disclaimer: If you know it, I still fail to own it. Even after all these years. However, I do own a lot more shoes now than I did when I started writing these disclaimers. But less nail polish, because the movers won't move liquids and I moved. Twice.

Getting Things Done (Or a Thing Done)

The rest of the holiday passed quietly. Tom was ever present once again, though Draco could not figure out if the pair had gotten together as in boyfriends or were simply back to being their odd version of friends. After two days of trying to figure it out, Draco gave up. As for the other dramatic couple, Draco did not see much of Regulus or Addy, nor did he ever find out if they'd made up before he found himself back at school.

"What do you mean you don't know if she said yes?" Hermione demanded as they sat by the fire the night they arrived back at school. "Did no one bother to find out?"

"She turned my hair pink," Harry grumbled. "Like hot pink."

Draco snorted.

"She turned your hair bright blue!"

"She did," Draco agreed. "We all had rainbow hair for the last few days of the holiday."

"The spell wasn't reversible?"

"No," Harry grumbled. "Professor Lupin tried to undo it on Christmas, but he couldn't. The only person who didn't have Technicolored hair was Sirius. Well, and Aunt Narcissa who wasn't in the dining room when Addy showed up."

"How Sirius escaped is a wonder," Draco remarked.

Hermione shook her head, giving them both exasperated looks.

"Well, I'm sure someone will tell you sooner or later," Hermione said, pushing her bushy hair out of her face as she leaned on Draco's shoulder. "Not that I blame her for being angry."

"Noted," Draco said. "Never propose by gifting a ring to your intended. Remember that Harry."

Harry gave Draco a dark look.

"Where is Tom?" Hermione asked. "I've not seen him since we got to the castle."

"He is meeting with Snape for some unknown reason," Harry grumbled. "I don't know why Tom trusts Snape so much. I was thinking, we should do something with our…uh, the army that Snape doesn't know about."

Draco and Hermione exchanged looks.

"What? He's a spy. You can't trust a spy with anything," Harry defended. "Spies have secrets. You know, Snape's secrets probably have secrets."

"What were you thinking?" Hermione asked.

Harry bit his lip, then rubbed his hands together. "We run a trial run of the Death Muncher Invasion. I was thinking, we could ask the Room of Requirement to look like the hallways under the astronomy tower and outside the actual room, so we can have trial runs of what might happen that night. Or what did happen, as Draco lived it."

Draco frowned.

"That's actually a good idea," Hermione allowed. "I mean, I know the military does trial runs of battles."

"Yeah! That's where I got the idea. I was reading something about Pearl Harbor and it said the Japanese did trial runs of the invasion so many times a lot of the guys claim they could have done it in their sleep."

Draco felt bewildered. "They pretend to go to war while they are at war?"

"Yes," Hermione replied. "So the soldiers know what might happen. I think this is a great idea, Harry. I believe we should select for the first run members of the Chess Club. They'll have the coins still, likely."

"Also, they know what's what," Harry said. "I already gave them the pep talk."

"What about the others that are in our dueling group who already think they are part of the defense of the school?" Draco asked. "There are at least ten people in our dueling group who were not in the Chess Club."

"Second wave," Harry suggested. "We run it first with the Chess Club, then with the others. Small groups are best. Draco?"

Draco squared his shoulders and met Harry's green eyes.

"You'll need to extract the memory of that night for me," Harry stated. "I'll watch it, then plan our defense."

"You don't want me to just tell you?"

"No."

"What if I don't want you to see it?"

"All I need is how you exited the Room and—"

"I threw Peruvian Dark Powder, used my Hand of Glory to light the way for the Death Eaters to enter. Potter's friends were waiting, but I managed to get passed easily because I was the only one who could see. They followed us to the base of the tower, but were unable to follow up due to the ward I put up that prevented anyone without a Dark Mark from getting up."

Harry frowned.

"So, you didn't fight?"

"No. I wasn't there. I was up on the tower and after Snape did the deed, he dragged me out of the school. I saw little of what was going on around me, then blocked a lot of it out if I did."

Harry frowned, then opened his mouth, but Hermione said, "The memory won't be intact if he was in shock, which is likely. I've read about it. The mind tries to protect itself and even magic is unable to recover the memories fully. It is not like when you simply forget a fact or misremember something."

"And it's not like when you alter the memory on purpose?" Harry inquired.

"No."

"When did you read about this?" Draco asked, turning in amazement to his girlfriend.

"I received a book on the mind from Sirius this year for Christmas. It was utterly fascinating and I was unable to put it down. It was much more informative than the books on Occulmency and Legitmency I've read here."

"Oh."

"I think Sirius thinks I might make a good Mind Healer," Hermione quietly admitted.

"Why would he think that?" Harry asked.

"He hardly knows you," Draco pointed out.

Hermione shrugged. "No idea. But, he's given me books on the mind, Wizarding and Muggle, since fourth year."

"Really?" Harry asked looking baffled.

"I mean, I've always been fascinated with the mind, because there is so much unknown and it's such a marvelous organ if you think about it, but…" Hermione trailed off, shrugging a little. "I'm not sure where he got the idea."

"Do you think you'd be a good Mind Healer?"

"I've no idea what to do. I want to do something to change the world, to do good, which a Mind Healer would do, but at the same time, I want to change the wizarding world and to do that I'd need to join the Ministry."

"I don't know if I want to be an Auror any longer."

Draco's jaw dropped.

"Since when?" Hermione asked. "I thought you were sure."

Harry shrugged, looking away and into the fire. "I'm kinda tired. I know I'd be great at it, but at the same time just thinking about it…after knowing more about it, I just…it makes me so tired to think about it."

"What would you rather do?" Draco asked.

"You're a good teacher," Hermione suggested.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know. I think after I've dealt with Voldemort, I'm going to get out of the dark wizard business. Also, watching Tonks do her job, how good would I really be at it? I'm Harry Potter. Everyone knows what I look like, knows me, and will always be interested in what I'm doing."

"True," Hermione agreed.

"It'd be like if Michael Jackson decided he'd rather be a cop," Harry muttered. "It'd not work."

Hermione nodded gravely, looking worried.

"Who is Michael Jackson?" Draco asked.

"A very famous Muggle," Hermione replied. "He's known the world over."

"I don't know him."

"You're not a Muggle."

"I still have another year of school," Harry went on, "I'm on track to be able to go to Auror school, but I don't have to. It's not set in stone. I mean, Muggles take a gap year before they start uni. Maybe I'll do a gap year. If Voldemort's gone. If not, well, I'll do a gap year after he's gone."

"You might be expected to help rebuild our society," Draco pointed out.

"If we stop him this year, that won't be an issue. Also, your mom is doing a lot to stop the events that allowed him to take over the Ministry in the first timeline. As long as he doesn't get this school or the Ministry, he'll be where he was last time. There wasn't much rebuilding after he offed himself in 1981."

Harry looked sure of this statement, so Draco didn't argue.

"Well, I'm for bed," Hermione said, standing.

She bent over and kissed Draco before letting herself out. Draco ran his fingers through his hair and bid Harry goodnight.

"Did you fill it out?"

Draco leaped out of his skin. "Do you not make noise?"

"No. Did you fill it out? You must mail it off by the end of the month."

"I need another two recommendations," Draco bit out, glaring at the other boy. "Besides you, who else shall I ask?"

Tom pressed his lips together and sat down next to Draco at the table he'd ensconced himself in the library. Hermione was busy writing an essay for Ancient Runes and had wandered off shortly after Draco had sat down. Her book and bag were still here, which meant she'd return after she tracked down whatever book she was looking for.

"I would suggest you request Flickwick and Snape write you one."

"Snape?"

"Yes."

"Why would I ask Snape?"

"Because Potions is your strongest subject after Charms," Tom pointed out like Draco was a moron. "And a recommendation from Severus would go far to put you ahead of the others. He's notorious for not writing recommendations for students. If you're able to procure one, they might take you just based on that."

Draco scowled. "He won't write me one."

"He's your godfather."

"On paper," Draco pointed out. "Since Mother threw father out, I've only seen him at school as he was father's associate, not Mother's."

Tom tilted his head to the side and studied Draco. "Why did he make him your godfather? From what I understand in the wizarding world, it's a rather important relationship between the child and the adult."

Draco nodded. "I'm unsure. No one explained it to me."

Tom shrugged and pulled his own work out and pointedly slapped the application in front of Draco.

"You went through my things?"

"Of course I did," Tom scoffed and Hermione reappeared. She looked thrilled to see Tom and began to drill him on the Ancient Runes essay. Draco glowered at Tom, pushing the application into his bag.

Draco filled the damn application out and that evening went down to the dungeons. He stood outside of Snape's office, staring at the dark, old, beaten up wood door. He hadn't bothered to check the map to assure himself this was where Snape was, mostly because he was unsure where else the professor would be lurking if not in his office at this time of night. The door opened before Draco managed to get the nerve to knock.

"What do you want?" Snape sneered.

Draco braced himself and asked, "I would like to request you fill out a recommendation for me as I wish to apply for the Spellsmith apprenticeship."

Snape's expression did not change, but he took the recommendation out of Draco's hands and slammed the door in his face. Draco turned tail and hurried off. He was under no delusion just because Snape took the recommendation from him he'd fill it out, so before he dropped off Flickwick's, Draco copied the recommendation so he'd have another copy to give to McGonagall the next morning. While Transfiguration was one of his weaker subjects, she liked him.

Color Draco surprised when the next morning a school owl landed in his porridge with the sealed parchment he'd handed to Snape not twelve hours before. He glanced up at the Head Table to find Snape glowering Hagrid who was telling him something that involved a lot of ham-fisted arm swinging.

"You got him to fill it out?" Tom asked, sliding into the seat next to Draco and ignoring Harry who looked put out by Tom sitting next to Draco rather than next to Harry. "Amazing. Told you he'd fill it out for you. You're sure to get in now."

"When will you find out?" Hermione inquired, sitting down across from him.

"Not until spring," Draco said, giving the owl some bacon and tucking the parchment into his bag. "I'll mail it off after classes today if Flickwick gives me his recommendation."

"We've got Charms today," Hermione reminded him.

Draco nodded.

"Best start thinking of what kind of spell you'd like to work on this summer," Tom proclaimed, leaping up from the bench and hurrying off.

"Oh," Hermione breathed, her brown eyes going wide. "You'll be creating a spell this summer?"

"No. But, I need to know what kind of spells I'd like to work on more. They'll then assign me someone to work with who invents those kinds of spells. Addy's and Tom's main focus was wards. Or, well, Addy's focus. I'm not sure Tom can focus with that big brain of his all over the place."