"1993?" Draco asks, "What could he possibly want us to do this far back?!"
"He already told us Malfoy. We are to break the cabinet. A vanishing cabinet as you had called it. It is there in Diagon Alley somewhere." Hermione answered, trying to think. "But first, we have to get out of here..." She looked around the room, at the paintings on the walls of the different previous Headmasters and then the books. "There has to be a way..." She said, trying to focus her thoughts.
"Yea," Draco answers laying back on the couch there in Dumbledore's office, propping his feet up on the arm of the couch. "Just walk out."
"We can't just WALK out Draco," Hermione answers, "We are supposed to be second years. What if we run into someone? Or worse, into ourselves! Bad things happen to wizards who meddle with time."
"Shows what a great Headmaster the old koot is then." Draco answers with a snarl as he lay his head back. " 'Bad things happen to wizards who meddle with time'" He says, imitating Hermione's voice obnoxiously. "That just shows what he thinks of his students."
"Show some respect!" Hermione growls, knocking Draco's feet off of the arm of the couch before looking out the window, trying to think. They needed somewhere to stay. Somewhere that no one else would find them, or even think of finding them. She tried to imagine how fun that would be to explain to Arthur and Molly if they accidentally ran across them in Diagon Alley or at the Leaky Cauldron. They couldn't stay there overnight and here at Hogwarts wasn't an option either, at least not while school was still in session. If it was May still, which according to Dumbledore's calender it was, school didn't let out for another month. She couldn't help but feel at a loss.
"Take your own advice Granger," Draco snarls back. "Start learning how to respect your superiors!"
"Draco! That's it!" Hermione said excited. "The Shrieking Shack!"
"How does your sodding mind work?!" Draco asked confused as he sat up on the couch. "I tell you to respect your superiors and you bloody think to the Shrieking Shack!?"
Hermione sighs heavily as she sits next to Draco on the couch, putting a reasonable amount of distance between them. "Well, I was trying to think of where we could stay. We need somewhere." She says, "Whenever you said that about me respecting my superiors, it got me thinking. You had said that whenever Ron and I were looking at the Shrieking Shack, remember? Our third year."
Draco thought back to it, trying to remember exactly which instance Hermione was talking about before it clicked in his mind. He couldn't remember exactly the insult he had thrown at her on that specific day, normally the insults he threw at her just blended from one into another, but he did remember the snowballs getting thrown at him, Crabbe, and Nott afterwards as Nott was de-pantsed and and Draco was drug up the hill by his ankles.
"You remember what I told you that day?" He asked, his face having a look of confusion, raising an eyebrow.
"I have...a tendency to look at what others oftentimes overlook," Hermione answers, not wanting to brag. "It allows me to look past extraneous detail."
"Right?!" Draco answers, nodding his head. "Anyway Granger, where are we going then? That bloody shack?! Does it remind you of your husband's dream home?"
Hermione sighed again. "We can make this easy or it can be difficult Draco." She says firmly. "Personally, I would rather it be easy but the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can get back to 1996 and get on with living our lives and hating each other."
Draco thought on it, knowing the mudblood was right. "Fine," He said with a snarl. "And how are we going to get to the Shack?"
"Get some floo powder." Hermione says, looking over at the fireplace in Dumbledore's office. "I don't know if the Shrieking Shack's fireplace can be floo'ed to so tonight we will have to walk. We don't have any other options."
"Isn't that what I already said?! And get it yourself mudblood." Draco answers, refusing to be ordered around by someone who was of lesser standings than himself.
Hermione now knew this was going to be harder than she thought. "You need me Malfoy!" She said not wanting to argue with him and waste any more time, her face hardening as she walked over to the fireplace and reached into her bag. It seemed to go on forever with clothing and books. "Accio baggy." She said, a plastic bag coming out of the backpack and landing on the floor. She gathered up some of the floo powder, putting it in the baggy before tying it shut. "There." She said as she turned around to face Draco once again. "Now, we have to be careful on how we leave. If someone walks by, you have to hide in the shadows. We CAN'T be seen."
"Don't worry about me." Draco answers, causing Hermione to only worry more. "I can be sneaky."
"Of course you can." Hermione mumbles under her breath, throwing her backpack back on. "Let's go."
As they snuck out of Dumbledore's office and walked through the corridors, Hermione made sure to keep both an eye and an ear out for anyone who may be passing by. It was already dark and a Sunday, so Hermione figured it was probably close to 8 or 9 p.m, so the students should all still be in their Common Rooms.
"We could just obliviate them you know." Draco whispers, moping along behind Hermione.
"And risk it not completely working?" Hermione asked, "Or worse, them hexing us as we raise our wands to obliviate them? I would rather not."
Draco rolled his eyes, following behind her up one corridor and down another. "Do you even know where you are going mudblood?" He whispered again.
Hermione stopped, causing him to run into her back from not paying attention. As she turned around, Draco saw a fire of fury in her eyes. "Stop calling me that!" She said firmly, "And yes, as a matter of fact, I do know where we are going but I am taking the long way to keep us from getting caught, not that it will do me much good if you don't shut up!" She hissed, returning to walking forward.
Draco shook his head in fury, unable to believe she had just talked to him in that fashion. And he had agreed to joining her on this stupid mission. If it wasn't for the fact that Hermione had the time-turner and he needed to do this just in case it saved his mother, Draco knew he would have told her to sod off whenever they showed up an hour ago.
Suddenly, he hears it. The familiar sound of his father's pacing. He knew it was weird to recognize a man's footsteps as such but Draco could remember as a young child, long before his Hogwarts days, playing in front of the fireplace there in the Entrance Hall of the Manor as his mother watched his father pace in fury.
"What do I tell them?" He hissed, looking at the floor while Narcissa sat in the chair watching him pace. Draco sat there silently in front of the fire, playing with a teddy bear Narcissa had just bought him and watched closely. "They are going to have me arrested!" He yells out, causing the young child to jump.
"I don't know," Narcissa whispered, near tears herself. "Say you didn't mean to do it."
"And how am I supposed to do that?!" He growled back, turning around to re-walk the same ground he had only moments prior. "I can't exactly blame it on the Dark Lord."
"Say it was the Imperius Curse?" She offered softly.
"Move!" Draco hissed under his breath as he felt sick to his stomach, grabbing Hermione by the arm and pulling her against the wall in the darkened corner as Lucius stormed past, his hair flying behind him as his feet hit the ground a little bit harder than what they should, making the sound of his fury all the more recognizable to Draco as Draco shivered in fear, hoping Hermione didn't sense it as their shoulders almost touched in the dark corner.
"He lost me my servant! My House Elf!" Lucius swore under his breath. "Over a sock! A sock!" He said, storming past, "He will pay for this!" He stormed past, causing Hermione and Draco to only wait there a moment longer, holding their breaths until he disappeared out of sight.
"What was that about?" Hermione asked whenever it was safe for them to move once more.
"Potter." Draco answered with a snarl as they left the castle, making their way towards the Whomping Willow. "He tricked my father into giving our House Elf a sock. Caused us to lose one of our best servants!" He hissed, reminding Hermione instantly of Lucius in the fury his words held.
"House Elves are not supposed to be servants!" Hermione stated, "They have feelings too!"
"They do not." Draco answered, "They are bred to be servants. It is all they are good for."
"IT IS NOT!" Hermione argued back, trying to keep her voice down as they approached the Whomping Willow. "Great..." She mummers, looking at it.
"What!" Draco snarls, still furious with her.
Hermione sighs deeply, trying to figure out how best to explain herself. "Last time I was here, we...we kind of had problems getting into the Whomping Willow." She says softly. "The tree attacked us."
Draco rolled his eyes, pointing his wand at it. "Immobilus!" He says, a blue light leaving his wand and hitting the tree dead in the center causing the tree to stop moving instantly.
Hermione couldn't help but tilt her head in shock, not quite wanting to compliment Draco and give him any more of a big head. "That works." She said, walking towards the tree where she remembered the hole being. She knew it was somewhere right there along the roots, a gap in between the roots but in the dark it was hard to see. "Lumos." She whispers, causing her wand to give off a very dim bit of light as she continued to walk around the tree. "Here it is." She whispers, "Come on."
Quickly she jumps down the hole, Draco following after her. The slid down to the basement of the Shack, Hermione quickly dusting herself off. "Why did we choose here again?" Draco asked, looking around the Shack for the first time disgusted. Dust and cobwebs covered the floor, walls, and ceiling. It looked as though the building hadn't been touched in years, decades possibly. The walls were browned with age and there wasn't a single door or window in the entire building. Never in his life had Draco been so disgusted.
"Do you have a better idea?" Hermione asks, slightly frustrated at Draco's constant complaining. He couldn't help but stay speechless, not having any other options. "Come on." She said walking up the stairs, using her wand to light the way up to where she remembered the bedroom sitting. Second door on the right, she told herself walking in there in shock. "This isn't right." She said.
"What isn't right?" Draco asked, looking around the room at the single four poster bed, still made as if no one had slept in it. Once again, the room was covered in dust and cobwebs, leaving it feeling slightly cold and drafty despite the fact that it was May.
"There is supposed to be a second bed here." Hermione says, looking in the room. "There were two beds our third year. One right here," She said, pointing at the four-poster bed. "And one here." She said, pointing at the opposite corner of the room. "Two beds. One for each of us."
"What Granger? Am I not good enough for you to sleep next to?!" He asked, snarling his nose at the thought and yet still offended that she felt the need to sleep separate.
"That's not the point." Hermione says back, blushing softly. "There are supposed to be two beds. There are. Ron sat on this one when we were here with Sirius and Remus." She says, pointing to the empty spot on the floor. "And Harry hexed Snape onto that one." She continues, pointing at the only bed in the room. "There were two beds, I know it. There are supposed to be two beds."
"Merlin Granger, if it's that sodding important!" Draco answers, pointing his wand at the empty corner, conjuring up a second bed next to the fireplace that looked identical to the one Hermione had seen before. "There, you have a blasted bed!" He said, just wanting her to shut up.
"Oh," Hermione answers, recognizing the bed automatically. "Ummm...thank you." She said softly, still in shock that the bed looked identical. She looked up at Draco before breaking eye contact immediately. "I guess I'll sleep here." She says, looking down at the mattress on the floor, still trying to figure out why it wasn't there before.
"Still think you are too good to sleep next to me then Granger?" He asked with a smirk.
"I didn't say that!" Hermione argues back. "I was simply saying...there were supposed to be two beds. And now there are." Looking over at the fireplace, she points her wand as she tries to take her mind off the fact that Draco Malfoy had just offered for them to share a bed. Or the fact that she was alone in a building with him. "Incendio." She says, lighting the fireplace with a fire that looked as though it had been lit hours ago and kept burning.
"So, now what?" Draco asks, looking at the fireplace as he sat at the foot of his bed.
"We need to focus on getting to Diagon Alley." Hermione says firmly. "And finding the Vanishing Cabinet."
"My second year, there was one in Borgin and Burkes." Draco answers, "I went there with my father."
"That's on Knockturn Alley, isn't it?" Hermione asks, unsure of herself having never been there. Draco nods his head. "Okay, well we can't go there looking as ourselves. We need to look like someone else. A Polyjuice Potion."
"And who would we look like?" Draco asks her as if she were supposed to come up with all the answers. Hermione sits down on the mattress on the floor that was now her bed, staring at the floor. She replayed the prophecy in her head. Find the twin...break the box...brew a potion for wooly socks...
"THAT'S IT!" Hermione yells. "What was it your dad was saying as he left? Socks?" She asked.
"Yea," Draco answers, "Potter tricked my father into giving our House Elf a sock. We lost him as a servant because of it."
"Find the twin. We did that, it's in Borgin and Burkes. Break the box, we need to do that still but we have to have a disguise. Brew a potion for wooly socks. Draco, we have to brew a Polyjuice Potion and have you look like your father."
Draco looked at Hermione. Him look and act like his father. She had to be mad. It was too dangerous with his father being a Death Eater. It was too easy to run into the wrong people, get asked the wrong questions. There was no way they would be able to pull this off. "You are mad." He said, not a single hint of teasing or harassment in his voice as his eyes held fear. "Even for a mudblood."