Eight

'The Cowards are the Brave'

Hiding in the glitter

Lying to the mirror

-Lying to the mirror, by Gabrielle Aplin.

Underground there was no sunrise; no early morning call, or cockerel signalling wake up time. There is nothing. There is everything. Magic meant that everything was possible. A morning underground and with magic meant that slowly Clochan an Dragon filled up with light and noise. However, in room 116 of the Nemeton, there was deafening silence. Hermione was awake, having experienced the first signs of morning underground, but Draco was not. When Hermione had dared to open Draco's door she saw him spread like a starfish on his bed, his bedcovers flung hazardously on the floor and his back exposed to her. He looked flat out but despite all of that he still wore a frown. Draco was hardly an inconvenience in this state; he was quiet, and a quiet Draco was possibly the best Draco, in her mind.

Hermione was a big believer in routine. She loved doing things methodically to produce an end result. So shutting the door of Draco's room she went on with her daily routine; brushing her teeth, washing, getting ready for the day and then finally making breakfast. She would have thought that the tantalising smell of food would have awoke the sleeping dragon but it didn't. She made noise, put music on and the like, he still didn't flicker. She did things dramatically; shouting while she was reading aloud and while she practiced spells, stomping around and making a fuss but still it didn't make him stir.

He really was out of it.

Hermione had an itch to poor water on him or something but as the Hogwarts saying taught her; never tickle a sleeping dragon. In addition to that, she didn't want to have a repeat of yesterday. Just remembering their argument made her feel a whisper of her previous anger. So she stood in the kitchen, her lips curled into a frustrated snarl as she violently wielded her kitchen utensil rather dangerously on a persistent griminess that stuck to the pan. She usually wasn't one to hold on to anger but in this instance, this morning, however, she was an absolute nightmare of gargantuan anger. She didn't like being angry; normally choosing to take a back seat when it came to that emotion. But there was something about Draco and his words that made her blood boil.

There were moments in that hotel room when the only sound was Hermione's breath and the rhythmic ticks of the clock. She was left with only her thoughts as company and as time shifted onwards she grew exasperated. It came to the time when the clock changed from 11:59 to 12:00 when she was making lunch that the dragon finally emerged from his den.

Shirtless and wearing only a pair of dark wash jeans with the buckle undone, Draco yawned and scratched at his stomach as he entered the kitchen. "I'm starving, what's for breakfast?" He enquired, the leftovers of the yawn distorting his words just a bit. Normally, girls would think that that was cute; Hermione did not.

"It's not breakfast, its lunch," Hermione deadpanned as she made him two sandwiches and set them on a plate. She had had to go down to the kitchen to ask for the food and it took a while to convince them that she could make things herself. This was all after the comments alluding to the fact that she was making her 'boyfriend' breakfast in bed. Draco being her boyfriend was laughable, almost to the point of Hermione passing out from lack of oxygen.

Draco looked to the clock and his jaw dropped "I – its twelve o' clock?" He asked as he sat down at the table.

"Yes Draco, you slept half of the day away and now we have limited time to explore the street." Hermione replied irritated, she supposed that she could have gone out herself but then Draco would have gotten angry when he noticed she was gone, searched the street and force another impromptu shouting session.

"There's not a lot here anyway," Draco spat around the last mouthful of his sandwich, already he had devoured the two that she had made him and was getting up to make another two. He was a growing boy okay, he needed his nutrients and minerals. Draco tried not to smile or grimace at his lie, it was true that he had only been to the street once in his lifetime, at that time exploring but only a handful of what it had to offer, but his Godfather had given him a list. This was a list of all the attractions that the street had that would interest him. In the summer after Hogwarts in his fourth year, he asked Snape if they would ever return to Ireland. The reply was no since the Dark Lord had finally managed to return to the world but Snape handed him a piece of paper of everything in Ireland if he ever wanted to return on his own. He was going to that summer but his father hastily stopped him; again due to the Dark Lord. Sometimes, he hated the Dark Lord with a passion.

"That is a bare faced lie!" Hermione raised her voice, leaving Draco alone in the kitchen as she moved about. She was waving her arms about, pointing in different directions and never at him. "There is loads to do, loads to see and I want to – need to…" she halted as if she was going to open a weakness for Draco to explore. "Can we just go out there for an hour?"

"I was planning to stay in today, to be honest."

"You're impossible!" Hermione said sitting indignantly down on the sofa, her arms folded defensively.

"You can go out there by yourself you know, nothing is stopping you." He bit into his second batch of sandwiches, watching as Hermione made an enthusiastic job of putting a coat on and securing her wand into her holster on her arm. "But… you'll miss me practicing wandless and wordless magic since you know we are on the run,"

At his words she stopped just as she put her hand on the door handle. Slowly, she turned around to face him, "You're going to practice wandless and wordless magic?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Are you're going to teach me how to do wandless and wordless magic?"

"Possibly." He had left his empty plate on the table in favour of walking towards Hermione "But isn't the street a lot more interesting? After all, it has 'loads to do, loads to see'," he mimicked her voice causing his voice to go high pitched. He had to cough a bit afterwards but it was so worth seeing Hermione scrunch her face up and slowly take off her coat.

"The street can wait."

"I don't do anything for free Granger, you should know me by now, in return for this lesson you will help me with some spells that I'm having trouble with, deal?"

Hermione only grumbled in reply; Draco grinned.

"Let me put a shirt on first, we don't want you distracted from this vital lecture okay?" He was walking to his room and his things when he heard her reply.

"You're so not my type."

"I'm everybody's type," he shouted through as he tugged on a random shirt, he could care less at this point, "You could also do something productive and move some furniture!" When he got back to the living room the living room was now a clear expanse of cream carpet, the furniture shrunk and moved into one corner bar from two pillows which were set in the middle of the room.

"Good. Now wandless magic – this will be hard for you – but you have to forget everything you have ever learnt."

Hermione shook her head forlornly, "Why?"

"Most books will tell you to imagine a wand in your hand, or pretend that your finger is the tip of the wand but in my opinion that is all bullshit. That is all a mental crutch, and makes it so much harder to do spells that require more magic. You have to get over that hurdle first." He turned his palm upwards and cupped it slightly, as if he was holding an invisible sphere. "Witches and Wizards have been able to do magic without wands before so I'm sure even growing up in a muggle household you would've noticed that you could do things no one else could. Wands only focus magic you already have. Without one, you have to focus it in a different way."

Hermione already knew this and grew irritated; however, she knew that if she said something to anger him he would not teach her what he knew. Draco looked into his cupped palm for a moment before he muttered "Avis," a small bright blue swift appeared in his hand. It flitted about his palm, looking around the room and chirping every once in a while before taking off into flight. It landed on top of the shrunk sofa, and continued to chirp happily until Draco cancelled the incantation. "Notice that only one bird was produced and not a flock of birds like the charm calls for, this is because I didn't hold as much concentration and therefore power to conjure more. Only one is simpler though," he moved on to another point shaking his head and hiding a half smile at the way Hermione's eyes lit up at his words.

"When you're a child, or even now, uncontrolled magic is often caused by strong emotions. That is one way in which you can focus your magic but it unpredictable. To do it more consistently, you have to focus your mind. That is why wandless and wordless magic is so difficult. Words focus your mind on the spell and it makes it easier to concentrate on the desired result. Without a wand you need to know exactly what you want to happen, or nothing will."

Hermione was enraptured by his words and couldn't hold back, "That is fascinating! I think I've once read a book where – "

"Hey, hey. There will be no arguing over theory while I'm the teacher. This is completely for applied spell work," Draco said.

"But I was agreeing with you!"

Draco sighed, "Let's not waste any more time thinking about the context of it. You can try it out now,"

"So soon," Hermione said worried, "Do you have any more suggestions?"

Draco laughed, "This is a practical lesson Granger so you just have to try it out. I picked this charm because it's easy to form that picture of what you want in your mind. It's something physical, not more abstract. Anyway, you're Granger you can do just about anything, including this."

Hermione held out her hand, "Avis," she said. Nothing happened. She tried a few more times, becoming more frustrated after every try. Draco laughed as the lines on her forehead deepened with each failed attempt. "Don't laugh at me!" She said to him as she gave up, she hated giving up as well.

"I'm sorry – " He said as he tried to stop, "Okay I can see the movement in your arm and you're still imagining a wand. Picture that bird and nothing else. Don't let your arm move." He said once he had recovered and motioned for her to try again.

She held up her palm once more and closed her eyes, she pictured a bright yellow budgie, like the one her grandmother used to have, in her mind and assured herself. Exhaling once she uttered the charm "Avis," and a puff of yellow feathers appeared in the shape of a budgie, followed by a sharp pop that mad her ears ring for a moment. It immediately dove into the air and disappeared as quickly as it had formed.

"That was good! A full corporal form as well although it only lasted a short while, it's a good start," Draco admitted and tried his again. While he was doing that he said, "You do have control over the spell but you fall into habit, many do it and it's just a hurdle with wandless spells, I would like you to try picturing more birds to see if there's a difference." He wasn't paying attention but the charm did its work.

There was only one swift in the air, flying circles around their heads.

"Maybe I need more practice too," Draco sighed,

"Maybe you need to pay proper attention," Hermione muttered and Draco just scowled at her while she giggled back at him.

"You try it then."

After a few attempts and cursing under her breathe, Hermione got two small ravens to perch on the window sill of the room. She praised herself for the change of bird while Draco had only stuck to one type, she took it as being slightly better than him and at her first go at it too.

She also remembered the saying that her parents were always saying on a morning when they were all having tea:

'One raven for sorrow… two for joy.'

Hopefully some joy would come her way if she was lucky. Despite this, she heard Draco's sharp and rather sarcastic claps that reminded her of someone in an audience clapping for an act on stage that they didn't like.

"Now, let's move on to working on shield charms," He said. "It will be more useful to the both of us in battle and it will probably serve as a stepping stone from spells with a more physical manifestation."

Hermione eyes almost glowed at his words "Do you just imagine a shield being produced?"

"Sort of. It's basically creating a visual representation in your mind but you also have to know what it's actually doing. If you don't do both you might find yourself with a shield charm that protects you from muggle weapons like swords instead of spells."

"You know about muggle weapons?" She giggled.

"I am allowed to be curious once in a while, Granger," Draco grumbled, "Okay, now you're going to send something to me but nothing too strong in case I fall over and split my skull open and get blood on my hair." Hermione rolled her eyes at the comment but raised the spare wand anyway.

"Flipendo." A white light burst from the wand and before it could hit Draco, he moved his hand out in front of him with his fingers sprayed.

"Protego." He said firmly and calmly. A blue field appeared just in front of his hand where the white light from her attack hit. It only lasted moments and after the bright flash it was gone. Hermione kept staring at that very space in the air where it had been. Her brows were furrowed and she crossed her arms. She was studying him like a textbook and she looked the most alive than she had ever been, Oh Salazar what am I thinking? He thought and mentally shook himself hard.

"If you want to ask a question, all you have to do is raise your hand," he teased her and relaxed a bit, those weird thoughts didn't mean anything.

"Was that a different colour to the normal ones?"

Draco nodded loosely, "Yes it was darker. Ten points to Gryffindor too. I can't focus enough magic into it without a wand for it to block all curses so I had to guess what kind of spell I thought that you were going to throw at me. From my experience, the colour shifts from dark blue to almost white depending on what you are shielding from. The general version, which is bright blue, is easier to produce when you have a wand. It is better to use your head if you find yourself wandless in a fight though – it means you know your enemy and can block their spells."

"How did you guess what spell I was going to use?"

"Because I'm just that good," Draco cockily said,

"How do you block a specific set of spells?" She asked again,

"Practice," Draco said simply "Imagine that you know that a stunning spell is coming your way, you know how those effects feel so you imagine blocking those effects. It's a matter of knowing what to block and how to block them which shouldn't be hard for you because you're brainy."

"Can I – "

"Mr Mallory?" There was a knock on the door and it signalled the end of the lesson.

"Yes?" Draco was hesitant to the call but answered it anyway, standing to open the door.

"A woman named Bella requested that, ahem, in her words 'get down there as soon as your arse can carry you, or she will skin your hide'.

Draco laughed and replied with an affirmative, Bella sounded the exact same as she sounded in her numerous letters.

Back when Draco was in his fourth year and desperate to go to Ireland back to the street, he took a point off of his Godfather's list and wrote a letter to a Bella O'Byrne[1] who was the owner of a Divination shop in Clochan an Dragon. They communicated for that summer and Bella told him that when he was back in Ireland, no matter how old he was, she would know that he was there and she would send notice of him. He knew that she was very much serious about her threat.

He told Hermione who they were going to meet and they proceeded to unshrink all of the furniture and put it back.

"I promise you that we will return to that lesson at another time but we've got our wands now so they are all just precautions," he assured her as she looked sad to leave it there.

"It's better to be cautious than dead."

Hermione hated it when she saw it; a divination shop. A small shop nestled in between a café and a shop selling just about everything, it was as gaudy as she expected; crystal balls and tea cups littering the windows.

She had to choke down a groan; she knew that would be disrespectful to Draco who was a friend of the owner. She had high hopes that the owner was much better than the shop itself. If her hopes were incorrect she wouldn't be able to bear it.

Upon entering a woman that could only be describe by one word – fortune-teller – greeted Draco in merriment, as they exchanged words.

"Draco Malfoy; what a joy to put a face to the words." She said, lifting a gaudy veil to uncover milky eyes, no pupils to be seen. Hermione was a bit perturbed but Draco appeared not to be.

"Bella, it's always a pleasure," Draco, being the gentlemen that he was when he needed to be, leaned down to gingerly kiss her palm and watched as Bella blushed slightly, trying to hide her reddened cheeks by her braids, which had wisps of silver in them.

"There's no need for that child, no need indeed."

Instead of carrying on the conversation Bella gestured for Draco to follow her and so Hermione followed them both (through the displays of blasted items to do with the one lesson that Hermione hated) to a back room.

The back room was nothing like the store. It had a large, low flat table in the centre and pillows on the floor around it instead of chairs. On the table was a single crystal ball, a spread of tarot cards lay around it and around that there were teacups at every setting. So not exactly nothing like the store but Hermione could handle this better.

On the wall there was a poster that read:

Tesseomancy

Derived from the French word for teacup; 'tasse', and the Greek suffixes '-graph', '-logy' , and '-mancy', Tesseomancy is a Divination or Fortune Telling method that interprets the patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments. Divination attempts to gain the insight into the natural world through intuitive interpretation of synchronistic events.

'Attempts' was the key word in that poster. The poster reminded her somewhat of Alice and Wonderland as it was a pale pink with many teacups adorned on the paper.

She had thought that Bella had not seen her or was just plain ignoring her once silence settled over the room for a moment. Draco and Bella were seated and she was the only one that stood.

"You carry a distaste for the work I do." Bella's voice crooned and Hermione had to turn to face her. It wasn't phrased like a question, like Hermione had expected, but was a straight and blunt statement.

"I prefer things that are true and not more than likely fake; my experiences with Divination are not… enlightening ones," Hermione had to tread carefully because in front of her was a woman who heavily believed in her work enough to make it her method of living.

"You also rely on more textual sources, things you can touch and see with your own eyes clearly. The future is not something that is solid; it is forever changing and evolving based upon what you do now and your decisions." She pointed to a seat one pillow away from Draco, and gestured for her to sit there. Hermione looked at Draco from across the short distance between them before complying. Draco held his teacup and was sipping at it gently, obviously he had tea or something in there to drink, and Hermione knew that that would be later used to see his future. "As you will come to understand with time, young girl, I am not like normal practitioners of Divination. Honestly, the future can be seen, but due to my own experiences I don't dabble in it too deeply. Why? Because the future is fragile and it is not up to us to write or rewrite. What we say to other people about their future is a heavy influence on their decisions. So, I don't tell them their future as of such, my policy is that they come here to do it themselves, they look into the crystal ball, they pour a cup of tea and then read what the bottom means, they pick the tarot cards and read their meaning. I am only a means of which they can do that."

Hermione nodded in her approval; at least Bella wasn't at all like Trelawney and her 'books will only get you so fair in this field' attitude.

Draco then proceeded to hand over his cup to Bella; who when taking it hummed in confusion.

"Your future is unclear; I cannot decipher anything out of this," she put the cup down and looked at Draco where his brow was furrowed in frustration. "Try the tarot cards if you are so inclined. Remember that there are 78 cards in front of you. There are 22 Major Arcana cards, which represent a path of spiritual self-awareness and depicts the stages you will encounter, they hold important lessons you should keep in mind. Then there are 56 Minor Arcana cards that are across four suits (cups, pentacles, swords, and wands) which represents your day to day future. You only get to pick three."

Draco leaned over the table, his hand hovering over the two rings of cards. Hermione assumed that the inner ring were the Major Arcana cards as it was shorter, and the outer ring was the Minor Arcana cards. After a minute of silence, he picked one from the inner ring and then two from the outer. Bella was handed them and showed the pair what he had picked.

"The Reversed Evil from the Major Arcana, the Reversed Ace of Cups from the Minor Arcana and the Upright Three of Pentacles from the Minor Arcana…" she paused for a moment to reflect on the cards and Hermione and Draco eagerly leaned forward for her judgement. Hermione had to admit that she was for once intrigued by the practice and not at all bored or disgusted like in regular Divination class. "You have recently broke free from a bond which has caused you to gain some kind of power; but you have repressed emotions or thoughts that are potentially blocking you from moving forward. The thing that is helping you at the moment is collaboration with another."

She put the cards back into their line up and looked up at the pair; "I have made an exception for you when it comes to reading, from this point forward if you want to look into the future you do it on your own."

As Draco looked lost in thought about Bella's words, Hermione hesitantly put her hand over the cards and closed her eyes. It felt strange; almost like a pull or drawn to feeling towards a certain card. She picked two from the inner row and then one from the outer.

Bella looked over and told her what they were, after all Hermione didn't have a knack for this sort of thing. "The Upright Moon and the Upright Magician from the Major Arcana and the Reversed Three of Wands from the Minor Arcana. The book you will need to read them is over there," she pointed to a stack of books in the corner of the room; a meagre compilation of textual information but insightful at least.

Hermione made her way over to them and pulled out a book which was titled Tarot Cards and their Elusive Meanings. She looked at hers first; the Upright moon meant illusion, fear, anxiety and insecurity, the Upright Magician meant power, skill, concentration and action, and the Reversed Three of Wands meant lack of foresight, delays, and obstacles to long term goals. After a few minutes of thinking what they could mean for her she concluded that she had fears of her own powers and skills that were constricting her from seeing the bigger picture. The Magician card might just be assuring her that she does have or will have the power needed for an action in the future; presumably the final Battle with Voldemort. And the Three of Wands could be symbolic to the obstacles in her way that was obstructing her from the Battle.

She then looked at Draco's and read out aloud what they meant, "Reversed Evil means detachment, breaking free, and power reclaimed. The Reversed ace of cups means blocked or repressed emotions and the Upright three of pentacles means teamwork, initial fulfilment, collaboration, and learning."

"I am nearly always right." Bella assured them, "Now, I have sensed that you did not come here to just see your future, you came here for another, more important reason."

"Bella, I am sure that you are aware of the Wizarding Battle that is occurring this moment in Britain? We are running from my family, who is in league with the dark side if you will as you know, and their cohorts. If we are captured we will certainly be killed. In order to avoid this we need glamour's which is also what you specify in," Draco admitted.

"You have always had a hidden agenda," Bella laughed, "I can see that you will need appearance charms but you also want something more, what is that?"

"We have both suffered from battle scars that would benefit us if we were able to hide them when not under the appearance charms."

"Very well, wait a moment please," Bella then walked out of the room and left the pair alone.

"Although you know Bella fairly well you haven't talked to her that much today?" Hermione commented even though Draco was avoiding her eyes for some reason.

"There's still time." After Draco had said that, they elapsed into a tense silence where Draco tried desperately to look at anything in the room but Hermione, his eyes flitting from wall to carpet and then to table to book, then to card to card and cup to cup. Hermione tried moving to see whether or not she just caught Draco's eyes but to no avail. And when Bella emerged through the doorway once more, carrying four things, the pair was glad of it.

She gave them each an amulet round a string chain and a ring, and she explained that the amulet was the full body appearance charm (that would alter it slightly to evade detection) and the rings were to hide the scars. Hermione was grateful that Bella did not pry into how they had got the scars or why they wanted to hide them, or wanted to have at them. On each item there was the same engraving; a triskele.

"What does the symbol mean?" Hermione asked intrigued by it,

"The triskele happens to be a very powerful glyph and it can mean very many things to very many different people; however, for me it stands for Id, Ego and Superego[2] or inner balance if you will."

When she put them on, she felt strange. It felt like lying. When she looked into the mirror it was her but it wasn't her. Her hair was brown still but this time short, like a pixie cut. Her eyes were green, like Harry's and her teeth were straight and not hers. It felt like she was lying to the mirror and that a stranger was trapped among the glass. She didn't feel like herself. She took the amulet off and she was glad that there were no scars and that Draco had thought of this wonderful privilege.

Speaking of Draco, his blonde locks were now long reaching his shoulders and curling, his eyes were brown and he had freckles. His jaw was a bit more pronounced and he was a bit tanner than the signature Malfoy paleness. He took the amulet off too, and he whispered to her that he wouldn't use it when they got outside, because it felt too strange and they wouldn't really need it. They were safe without them. They were just a precaution.

Everything was precaution.

Hermione felt that it was cardinal to leave Draco and Bella alone for a few moments to catch up, and so she asked if there was a place where she could practice some spells. Bella confirmed that there was a small garden space in which she could practice on her own.

The garden that she had pointed out was extraordinary, and something that could only be accomplished by a witch or wizard. It was rather simple, a rough circle that was bordered by multi-coloured flowers and had two stone chairs in the middle with a small table dividing them. But the most beautiful thing was all of the bottles. There were hundreds of bottles, of a variety of sizes and colours and at different heights, which were suspended in the air. She was so enamoured with the display that she has to pick one, touch one. Closing her eyes, she reached blinding at an angle she couldn't determine and her hands touched a bottle. Upon opening her eyes she saw that it was short and royal blue, and at the height that it was if she stood on her footsteps she could blow into the top and make it an instrument. So that is what she did. She pulled the lid off and a wisp of smoke escaped but other than that it was empty. As she peered inside she could smell a roaring fire, and a hint of snow (she could feel the smell of cold on her nose) and roasting chestnuts. Taken a back she inhaled deeply and within there was the aroma of pine needles, the wax of a dripping candle and the sugar candy that was candy canes. It reminded her so much of Christmas that she could almost feel the excitement and the anticipation, and it was wonderful and frightening at the same time. She put the lid back on and took a step back – she took a moment to pull herself together, to make her head stop spinning in the Christmas splendour.[3]

It worried her so much that she decided to practice her wandless shield charms to get her mind off of it. After several tries she got a pale blue shield to emerge and then later a dark blue one; she had accomplished such a feat that she was drawn back to the bottles.

Next she picked a bottle that was so low she had to kneel to get to it, it was thin and tall with a cork held in place by a small strip of wire. The inside of this bottle was lined with white silk and the scent that wafts up is incense, deep and spiced. She could feel the smoke curling around her, even though she knew that it was not remotely real. It was hot, a dry dessert air under the pounding sun. It was so hot that she could feel her cheeks flush. She could feel something as though silk was caressing her shoulder and there was music hanging somewhere in the air. There was music she could not discern, a pipe of flute maybe, and a laughter high pitched and long that blended harmoniously with the music.

"So you've found the bottles." The voice distracted her so much that she dropped the bottle from the invisible string that it was suspended from. It was only the magic of the garden that saved it, pulling it upright, corking it and putting in its rightful place.

Draco stood there with his arms by his side, but with his hands tucked into his sleeves. He looked remarkably vulnerable, but as was the Draco way he shrugged it off. "Bella had them put there as an extra attraction and to ward certain people away, she calls them 'The bottles that contain memories' and I personally wouldn't go near them. They're terribly distracting."

Hermione could only agree with them; she could have stayed there forever if nobody had come for her.

"But let's continue with our lessons," He moved to sit on one of the stone chairs and Hermione sat opposite him. "What is a nonverbal spell?" Draco asked Hermione.

"A nonverbal spell is a spell which is performed without saying the incantation aloud, like the name implies. Performing spells in this way is difficult and requires extensive practice, as to master this skill you need to have mastered concentration and your mental discipline first. Most schools start teaching how to perform a nonverbal to students in their sixth year because of this fact. It harbours many advantages as your adversary has no warning about what kind of magic you are about to perform or how to defend against it so quickly. Most spells seem to be less effective than normal when performed nonverbally alluding to suggestions that words have power on their own. Did I miss anything out?" She replied with haste, knowledge from a variety of books rolling off of her tongue in a tandem.

"You did actually. The Levicorpus spell is easier to perform without saying the incantation as it requires the less energy to do. We will start with that one first." Draco admitted before standing and holding out his wand.

"The Levicorpus jinx was originally meant to be used as a nonverbal spell although the spell can also be spoken aloud regardless. This came into customs when wands were introduced and magical brethren found it harder to perform wordless through an instrument that at first called for words to aid them. As you know this jinx causes the victim to be hoisted into the air by their ankle and the counter curse is Liberacorpus."

"I know the context of it, this is not a history lesson Draco."

"To properly understand I have to make sure that you know everything about the spell; trust me it helps." Draco cocked an eyebrow at her in question on whether she was going to allow him to continue with his method of teaching.

"Just hurry up."

"To master wordless magic all you have to do is strongly imagine what you are going to do. With the Levicorpus jinx it is quite easy to just feel like your opponent is being hoisted into the air by the ankle. You recall the feeling of being upside down and suspended and ta da you've got it. I imagine that the bottles would help with the imaginings at least."

They then took turns saying the jinx and suspending the other in the air upside down. By the time Hermione had accomplished it her hair was stuck to her face and she was red from being upside down. But she felt a feeling of elation at having mastered something new.

What surprised her more though was the fact that outside it was darkening slightly, and time was wearing on?

"Now that we have some spare time I believe that it's time for you to repay me for my services." Draco said confidently,

"You're services?" Hermione murmured, it sounded almost as if she had pleasured him which was just disgusting in her mind. It took her awhile to realise that he was talking about the lessons between them, and she nodded briefly. "What would you like me to teach you?"

"Patronus'?" Draco mumbled vulnerably, "I know that it's a form of communication and I've saw Snape use it before but I – " He stopped and stared at the ground, Hermione had never seen this Draco before, she hadn't even known that it had existed.

"Okay, just think of your happiest memory, one that you can find strength from, and guide that energy through your wand." She instructed and pulling out her wand she said the spell and a silvery blue otter emerged and swam around the room.

Draco watched it eagerly. When Draco took out his wand he shifted his feet. "Expectro Patronum," he said confidently but nothing happened not even mist appeared and he scowled and dropped his arm. "Pathetic," Draco murmured to himself.

"I don't think your memory was strong enough, if I may ask what were you thinking of?"

"Flying…"

"Boys," Hermione uttered and smiled, she then suggested that he would think of something else maybe of family or a happy time.

He tried again; still nothing. Draco got more and more frustrated with himself after every try, he wanted to be able to do this, he needed to do this. He was weak because he couldn't produce one, it was another category in which Potter could use to his advantage over him. "Draco, the foundation of magic is belief. So all you have to do is believe in yourself," Hermione was there to see through his building anger.

"Like you know how I'm feeling," the boy gritted through his teeth, "What is your memory?"

She told him that she thought of Harry and Ron and her parents when casting a Patronus, she even suggested that a collection of memories would be stronger than just one because there were more emotions involved.

He centred his feet and stood a little taller, "Expectro Patronum," He whispered.

That whisper was enough though and a grand eagle[4] burst out of his wand, and Draco sucked in a breath, he thought that it would never work. But here it was, the mighty bird swooping and soaring around the room. He had convinced himself that he was a fluke; someone who would never have a Patronus, someone who was always behind and lacking. He had just proved himself wrong.

He touched a silvery wing and a flood of memories hit him; waves of them that he would never share with anybody, not ever, willingly.

After a moment the bird flew away its lighter almost white tail leaving Draco in its midst. And then it disappeared, silver mist dropping into nothingness on the floor of the garden.

Draco was so happy about all of this that he felt that he had to reward Hermione and himself. "C'mon," he said to her as he pulled her to her feet, "Let's go on an adventure," he laughed and escorted her through the shop to the front where Bella was waiting.

"Dear Dragon and Merlin's beard you're smiling!" Bella said, Hermione had simply given up on speculating how she could see this when she was practically blind, maybe Bella was just that good.

"I'm happy." Draco replied, hugging her.

She hugged him back and whispered in his ear "I'm glad of it, and of your return here. Never lose hope and happiness my friend." She pulled back and at arm's length continued so that Hermione could now hear her words, "When you return here again, believe me I will know!" They all laughed as Draco backed off almost buzzing with energy.

Hermione approached her, "You said that with time I would learn that you weren't like the other's why is that? What is different with you besides the obvious?"

"My family are tricks of the trade, sharing the gift of foresight. And because of this they share their predictions of the future. They all said to me that I would kill the first person that I would ever truly fall in love with. That feared me so much that I shied away from love, swore never to love a man in my lifetime. When I came into my gifts I shied away from those too, I hated the future and the fact that people interfered too heavily in it. When I was twenty three I met a boy that I liked but there was a fire, I was blinded and he was killed. My magic got out of control because of my feelings and set something alight. Since then I shied away from my family and have been forced to go back into the trade, but not to interfere but to guide and assure." Bella looked sad after this retelling and Hermione pulled the older woman into a hug to reassure her.

"Be the treat and not the trick." Hermione whispered to her, instead of an 'it's alright' or 'I'm sorry', since those didn't really seem to work. She was pulled into the memories of Halloween and her mind went back to the bottles. She must have said something aloud about the bottles then because Bella repeated the word and then shook her head.

"It's been great to meet you Hermione; look after the Dragon."

It took Hermione a while, after she had left that shop, to realise that nor her or Draco had ever told Bella her name.

Draco's father had told him once that life was just an exchanging deal. Something tossed in between two hands, a debt and a reward. That was how people interacted with one another; pay and collect, receive and reimburse. But maybe that was just an old fable, an old pointy wizard's hat. Maybe Draco had to take it off. He had to at least try to shake off his father's ideals and make his own. He thought that he might like that.

Draco's father had also told him that to run from something, especially something concerning the Dark Lord and his wrath, was an act of cowardice. It was running from something that would redeem yourself and better yourself in the eyes of one destructive being. But Draco also knew that staying and fighting for the Dark Lord, an act of bravery in his father's mind, would be an act of cowardice in every eye of those on the opposing side. In that moment Draco decided that the cowards are the brave: they admit what they can't do, they surrender and they know when to stop for their own wellbeing. They live. And while a legion of the brave will only return with one man or two, a legion of the cowards will return whole.

"Where are you taking me? Why are you taking me there?" Hermione gasped as Draco pulled her along.

"We are going on an adventure, to somewhere with seas of words and islands of knowledge. We will be the stranded but we will be the victors."

Hermione didn't really understand his words but her reply to Draco was simple:

"Okay."

[1] This means a descendant of Bran which means "raven" in Irish. In Irish legend Bran was a mariner who was involved in several adventures and the name is considered masculine.

[2] The id, ego, and superego are names for the three parts of the human personality which are part of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic personality theory. According to Freud, these three parts combine to create the complex behavior of human beings.

[3] This is an idea taken out of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern with the tent being Bedtime Stories, all rights go to the acclaimed author and not me.

[4] I picked an eagle for the fact that is a magnificent bird with the Gaelic's calling the White Tailed eagle, as the one described, as having pale insightful eyes who scavenged for the dead. Druids also believed that the birds of the world held competitions to see who could fly the highest and be the best basically. And just when the eagle, almost predictably, declared his triumph, the tiny wren popped out from its hiding place among the eagle's feathers and flew that bit higher and won the contest. The Druids held only the wren in greater esteem than the eagle for its shrewdness and cunning. Signifying that Draco is beatable and not the best.