Chapter Twenty-One

Draco was padding through the courtyard when he saw a flash of lightning strike above the castle, followed almost immediately by thunder. It seemed to shake the castle walls, it was so close. Draco had found himself awoken by the rain over on the other side of the Black lake, in the trees. The sun had almost set by then and he was soaked through.

It'd taken him most of the night to get back to the castle; it seemed like he was traveling with the storm. His fur was hanging on his body and he felt like he weighed a hundred pounds. As he struggled up the castle steps, he saw his aunt throw open the doors for him, "Come inside Draco, you're getting soaked." She smirked, letting him in.

He followed her inside to her room off the Transfiguration hall; once she'd shut the door, he changed back into his human form and started ringing out his clothes. Andromeda ushered him over to the fire and dried him off with her wand. Even though he was dry now, he was still shivering; his aunt wrapped him up in a blanket and gave him a cup of scalding hot tea.

Once he was warmed up again he said good night to his aunt and returned to his wolf form. Once the door closed behind him, Draco headed for the kitchens. Letting himself in once more, he changed to his human form and called out to the elves; he knew it was late but he also knew that there were always elves in the kitchen. As if on cue, he saw one of their bald heads bob around the corner, "Sirs is back!" it squeaked to the others, as more heads appeared, "Would sirs be liking more food?" it asked as it approached Draco.

"Please." He said, nodding.

By the time he left the kitchen, he could see some of the sun's glare making its way through the thick black clouds. The storm was still raging outside, but Draco was just glad he was inside and dry. The house elves had given him so much food again he wouldn't be surprised if he exploded, but at least he wasn't hungry anymore. He'd transformed back into his wolf once he'd left the kitchens, and made his way back up to Hermione's room.

When he got outside her door, he pushed it open with his nose and crept inside. She was sprawled out on the bed and she smelled like dust; she'd been in the library again, and pretty recently by the stench. Draco shook his head and jumped on to the bed next to her; he looked at her before lying down. She was beginning to get a slight bump on her stomach from the baby.

Draco sighed, and nestled into her pillows; he was sore from his stupid journey, and he need to get into the library tomorrow. He frowned as he thought back to what they'd found under the lake, but he was also curious. Even his father had never heard about such a thing, otherwise Draco would know.

Lucius had started telling Draco all the secrets of the wizarding world when he'd first started at Hogwarts; he'd claimed that no Malfoy had ever been caught unaware, and Draco wasn't about to ruin the family name.

He'd known about the Chamber of Secrets and about the Room of Requirement since first year. His father hadn't told him about the secret passage ways around the school until third year and he definitely knew that the librarian removed the security spells from the Restricted Section in the summer; but Draco was confident Lucius would have told him about this if he'd known.

When Hermione woke up the next morning, her eyes didn't want to open; she was still tired from last night. Stretching out on her bed Hermione rubbed her eyes and felt her leg brush against something furry. Looking over her shoulder she saw Dragon curled up in her pillows; Hermione groaned, when did he get here? She thought, and what time is it? She glanced over at the window, she couldn't see the sun but she knew it was blazing up in the sky.

Hermione rolled out of bed and flumped on the floor; groaning again, she crawled over to her trunk and pulled out a jumper and some trousers. Yanking them on, Hermione slugged out of her room and down the stairs to the Great Hall. As she rounded the corner to the big doors, she found Thomas and an old man deep in discussion. Hermione rubbed her eyes and walked over to the table; they hushed up as she got closer and the old man got up and left.

When she sat down at the other end of the table, Thomas got up and walked over to her, "Hello Hermione, " he said as he sat down next to Hermione, "You look…nice…today."

Hermione glared at him and rubbed her eyes again, "Good morning Thomas." She groaned; she was tired and groggy and really didn't want to talk to him right now.

Thomas cleared his throat and looked away awkwardly, "It's…uhm…it's the middle of the afternoon…" Hermione groaned and took a sip of her pumpkin juice; how late did she stay up?

When Hermione was finished lunch she went up to McGonagall's office to see if she was there. Approaching the office, Hermione called out Urquart and stepped up the circular stairway. She paused at the solid oak door and knocked three times; Hermione heard a voice inside and opened the door. She found McGonagall and Andromeda sitting at the big desk; McGonagall beckoned her over to the table with a finger and Hermione sat down next to Andromeda.

Draco awoke to a thumping noise on the floor; looking around for the source, he saw Hermione making her way over to her trunk. He waited for her to leave before hopping down off the bed and wandering out into the hall. Draco knew the library was on the second floor, but he couldn't remember the last time he'd been there.

Shaking his head, Draco had to sniff it out; it wasn't that hard considering the fact that all he really had to do was retrace Hermione's steps from the night before. It turned out that the library was just on the other side of the main staircase, so he didn't have to go far.

Draco wandered into the library and made his way towards the back; his father had also told him the Madam Pince spent most of her time in Diagon Alley during the summer so he wouldn't find her here. She always came back at night, but come dawn, you could never find her. So when Draco got to the Restricted Section, he transformed back into a human without a worry.

He wasn't really sure what kind of book he was looking for, so he started with the oldest books and made his way forward. As he was going through the Twelfth Century book on Magical Creatures, he spotted a piece of rotten wood behind the books. Draco frowned and pulled the rest of the books off the shelf.

Once he had them piled on the floor, Draco turned back to the shelf and removed the rotten back board. Peaking inside, Draco found an old crumpled book. The book look strangely familiar, but he'd never heard the name Secrets of the Darkest Art before. Pulling it out, Draco dusted it off and sat down on the floor.