"No," Hermione answers, "We have to go in undercover as Lucius." She says focused. "And...and..."
"You are not getting a single hair of mine." Draco answers stubbornly, looking at her. "It is suicide, disguising as a...a.."
"A Death Eater Draco." Hermione answers, shaking her head. "You can say it, your father has already been arrested for it."
"He hasn't yet." Draco says firmly. "We went back in time Granger. My father is still innocent as of right now." He says placing himself firmly on the belief, despite how false it sounded even to him.
"Your father was never innocent." Hermione says, proving a valid point that even Draco didn't want to face. His eyes looked down at his lap as he realized that Hermione was right.
"And what do I do if he is summoned?" Draco asks forcefully. "If someone asks him about something he's doing with work at the Ministry or...or..." Draco had gotten so used to not being able to say what his father did for a living. Up until about a day ago, or...in about three years, Draco thought to himself in confusion, he had always had to keep who his father worked for a secret, never being able to explain to his friends (other than Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott, whose parents were in a similar boat) where his father was whenever they came over to visit. Now, it nearly felt unrealistic to talk to anyone about it, much less Granger who was friends with Potter.
"If someone asks about his Dark Mark?" Hermione asks, raising an eyebrow as if it were obvious what Draco was referencing to.
"No Granger!" He snarls back. "I meant what if he is asked about something with the Board of Governors!" He bit back defensively.
"I didn't know the Board of Governors got summoned." Hermione mumbles to herself as she looks through the backpack that was given to her by Dumbledore. It contained their potions books, most likely from the prophecy stating something needed brewed, a Defense Against Dark Arts book, and their most recent Charms and Transfiguration books and Moste Potent Potions. Also inside the bag contained clothes that would properly fit Hermione and a few things that were just random clothes that wouldn't. She looked at Draco before sighing heavily. "See," Hermione answers matter-of-factly. "Dumbledore wants us to make the Polyjuice Potion. Otherwise why would he give us more than one Potions book."
"It's too dangerous," Draco answers, "and it's foolish to try to do. Besides, doesn't that take a month to brew?" He asked, smirking as he knew the answer while Hermione continued to look through the Moste Potent Potions book.
"Yes it does." Hermione answers, "and we don't have any of the ingredients but..." She said, digging through the backpack once more. "We have these." She said, holding up two plastic bags, one Draco recognized the coins as Galleons.
"Brilliant." He answered with a sigh, "And what are those?" He asked, looking at the other bag with unfamiliarity.
"These," She said with a happy smile. "These are pounds, muggle money." Draco snarled his nose, causing Hermione to finally get tired of his attitude. "Well, we have to eat somehow Draco! And we can't exactly go down to Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley!"
"I am NOT eating muggle food." Draco huffed. "Disgusting. May as well sit and eat with House Elves!"
Hermione sighed again, tired of having done nothing productive since she got there due to Draco's narcissism. "Fine," She answered. "You can starve! I am going to eat tomorrow morning whether you do or not!" She huffed, sticking her nose up in the air before returning back to the book in front of her. "Okay, so I can get the knotgrass." She said, knowing it was local. "I can get the Bicorn horn in the Forbidden Forest, carefully of course but I have to wait until the fourth of June for the fluxweed. It should grow right near the Whomping Willow though and..." Hermione ran the list, running her finger down the single column of ingredients as she did up the math in her head. Lacewing Flies were 6 for two galleons. Leeches were 8 for six galleons. The Boomslang skin they would have to sneak out of Snape's private storage.
"What are you doing?" Draco asked, looking at her confused as she stared off into space, conjuring up a plan.
"We need eight galleons." She said, reaching into the bag Dumbledore had left them, taking out the eight galleons. "That should be enough for all the ingredients I can get at the Apothecary."
"And how are you planning on getting there?" Draco smirked, knowing he was right. "We can't go out. Someone might recognize us." He mimicked with a laugh as Hermione grabbed her wand quickly, pointing it at Draco as he started to shake nervously. "You...you need me Granger..." He said fearfully. "We...we are su...supposed to do this together."
"I know," Hermione answers, "MULTICORFORS!" She said, causing Draco to jump as his hair to shorten and turn a dark brown. "We can't look like ourselves. This will cover us up long enough to make purchases but this won't work nearly as long as the Polyjuice Potion would." She said with a sigh of defeat wishing it lasted longer. It would make everything so much easier. She looks down at herself before repeating the spell on herself, causing her hair to go into a shortened pixie cut and change to a light blonde color. "It's not much of a disguise but it'll work for now."
Draco followed her, dragging his feet as the two of them used the secret passageway on the fourth floor of Hogwarts to get to Hogsmeade. "We only have thirty minutes before the charm wears off." Hermione says calmly. "But so long as we can get back into the passageway by then we should be fine."
Draco nods his head in understanding. "Look," He says, pointing to a bright green building. "The Magic Neep. All we need are Leeches and Lacewing Flies, right? They should have those."
"Yea," Hermione answers, "Hopefully. I think that's where Snape gets some of his stuff when he needs more supplies in a hurry. I have seen him go in there once or twice."
As the duo walked into the store, Hermione looked around quickly, dashing over to the insects department as Draco looked around the shelving. "Excuse me sir." He said with a sly smile, talking to the store keep while Hermione searched frantically for the Lacewing Flies.
"Yes?" The store keep asked, looking Draco over. "Aren't you a bit young to be out this late?" He asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.
"Actually, my name is Terrance Higgs, pureblood." Draco answered with a smile, causing Hermione to turn her head quickly in shock. "I finished Hogwarts last year and this is my sister." He said as smooth as if he had been saying it his entire life. "Teresa Higgs. Slytherin right?" He asked, looking at the store keep with a smile.
"Why yes." The store keep answered a bit happier now as Hermione looked at Draco in confusion, trying to figure out what he was doing. This wasn't the time to be chatting away. "How did you know?" The older man asked him curiously.
"One Slytherin to another, we can tell." Draco answered with a smile, looking down at the man's left forearm before back into his eyes. "Now, I was wondering..." He said as if looking around the glass cabinets for an item. "I am in need of something. Something special." He said, a small smile forming on the edges of his lips as he looks back up.
"Maybe you should come back to the back of my shop Mr. Higgs," The shop keep answered, causing Hermione to look even more confused. NO, she told herself, NO! NO! NO! This wasn't the way it was supposed to work! They were on a time limit! They couldn't be mingling with everyone they saw. She looked around frantically before looking back at the shelves and then back at the doorway Draco had gone through.
"Pleasure doing business with you sir," Draco said with a smile, shaking the shop keep's hand before turning around with a bag in hand. "OH!" He said, turning back around and setting a Galleon from his pocket on the counter. "For your time." He said with a sly wink before walking out of the shop, Hermione quickly following.
"WHAT WAS that about?" Hermione asked fiercely. "We didn't even get what we came for! And lying about your name?! What if he knew Terrance Higgs? Then what would you have done?" She said frantically. "That was NOT how this was supposed to work." She said frantically.
"Granger," Draco says calmly. "Please shut up."
Hermione stopped in her tracks, unable to do much more than stare at him in shock. "Well, I never-" She said finally, catching up to him. "You don't understand! We have a plan! And if we don't stick by that plan, we could get caught! We could get arrested!" She says again, playing it out in her head. "We could...we could get killed Malfoy!"
"Do you even listen to yourself?" Draco asked with a casual sarcasm as he walked into Honeydukes, quickly making his way to the secret passage in the back.
"What do you mean!?" Hermione bit back as they entered the passageway.
"Look in the bag." Draco answered, tossing it to her. Hermione quickly opened the paper bag, finding four bottles of Polyjuice Potion. Each one having a stamp on it.
"From the Apothecarium of Horace E. F. Slughorn." She read out loud. "But how?"
"It helps to know who father works with." Draco answers with a smirk. "Come on Granger. We have a Vanishing Cabinet to break."