Draco worked carefully on his wand for the next few days, carefully using the little files to produce a hole of exactly the right size for the shard of unicorn horn to go inside. Then it was done. With the hole carefully prepared, the core was dropped in and all that remained was to cap the wand with its handle. Then, Draco had himself a wand. As he picked it up he felt a strange feeling go through him. He smiled, for the first time since Godric's Hollow. It went broadly unnoticed, except for Hermione, who was looking at him at the time, and sighed.

'It's nice to see you smile, Draco.'

'It's nice to have something to smile about. Thanks for your help Hermione, his wand. I don't know, it just feels better than the old one.'

'Perhaps it suits you better.'

'Yeah, but the old one always had done, it's not as if it ever dropped off in performance or anything.'

'True, but I think you're a very different person to the eleven year old that bought that wand, Draco.'

'I'm not sure.'

'You are, Draco. You've gone from being a totally insensitive snob to being the kindest man I know.'

'Thanks, Hermione.' Draco said blushing.

'I mean it. Take Ron for example, he runs out on me after we've been going out for months and now he's back at Hogwarts, all over Lavender Brown like a rash. He seems really nice, and yet is about as sensitive as a brick wall.'

'How do you know..'

'Oh, Harry was looking at the Marauder's map again, he was looking at Ginny apparently, which is kind of cute really, but he saw Rona and Lavender together in the Gryffindor common room. Their dots were distinctly overlapping.'

'At school?'

'Apparently so.'

'Dirty devil.' They sat in silence for a while, then Hermione spoke.

'Well, how's it work then?'

'Like any normal wand.'

'No, go on, let's see you use it.'

Oh, go on then. What do you want me to do?'

'How's your transfiguration, let's see if you can... conjure a desk out of thin air.'

'Alright. What colour?'

'You think you can manage the colour?'

'We'll see.'

'Bright orange leather in mahogany, please.'

'One desk, coming up.'

Draco waved his wand and, just as he had hoped a desk appeared, with orange leather inlaid into deep mahogany.

'Nice. Pity we don't have any room for it.'

'True.'

Draco waved his wand and banished it again.

'Works well. Thanks Hermione.'

'Not a problem. We stand a far better chance where we're going if you've got a working wand.'

'Perhaps. So, how's the planning going. I guess you two must have nearly sorted it out by now.'

'Pretty much. Harry came up with a great idea of how we get out.'

'Go on.'

'We don't.'

'What do you mean we don't? I for one don't want to die in Gringotts.'

'No, but we can make ourselves invisible, right. All we have to do is break in clumsily and the goblin's will come and investigate. We then hijack they crazy cart thing and then when we're back on the surface we can get to the exit and apparate away quite easily.'

'I hope you're right about that.'

'If not, we're bound to think of something, right?'

'I suppose so. I'm still going to look up as many blasting spells as possible, just in case.'

'If you must. We're planning on leaving after lunch.'

'That soon?'

'Yeah, seems to me the sooner the better, really. The sooner we do it, the less chance they have to upgrade their defences or move the cup or. Well, anything really. Anyway, it'll be fun.'

'Fun? You think a bank robbery is fun?''

'Well, playing dress up to get in's quite fun, then I'm exploring somewhere new, and you've got to admit, it's going to be pretty exciting isn't it?'

'I suppose so.'

'Well, cheer up. We've got potatoes and onions for lunch, and then we're going.'

'Well, if all else fails we can always try breathing on them after that. It should polish them off no trouble.'

'Well, it was you who picked them up. Remember that.'

'I do.'

A hearty last meal of potatoes and onions, only slightly burnt, had been prepared by Harry and they tucked in greedily to the pile of food as soon as it was ready.

'Thanks Harry. This is really good – barely any burnt bits at all.'

'Thanks. It's not too hard as long as you keep stirring.'

'You must have been stirring like a maniac then.'

'Not far off.' Said Harry, a huge grin filling his face. They ate and decided on their disguises, which Draco and Hermione applied magically before Harry threw his invisibility cloak over the lot. Well, it was now or never. Once more greatly appreciative of the convenience of magical travel, they apparated into the back yard of the leaky cauldron. Hermione tapped the brickwork a couple of times, as Draco had first seen his Father do so many years ago. Draco waved the thought from his mind, needing to concentrate on other things, including keeping in character. They strode purposefully down the alley, past many burnt out and abandoned shops, past the vibrant Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, which now was bereft of the edible dark marks and Death Eater themed practical jokes that had once filled the window. Nonetheless, with new ranges such as "the boy-who-disappeared" invisibility hats, business was apparently still doing well. Given that Draco was sure the Weasley twins knew about Harry's cloak, it brought a cheerful smile to his face. There was no way they hadn't been thinking of that when they made them. Draco bit the inside of his lip gently, the discomfort keeping his mind on the task in hand. He made a few big paces to catch up with Hermione- disguised as someone they had made up on the spot- and trusting Harry to confound the guards on the door armed with probity probes, walked straight into the bank itself. Waltzing up to the main counter they handed over Harry's key and asked to be taken to vault 687 – Harry's vault. The goblin looked at them, nodded and led them towards the carts. They boarded and a quick tap on his shoulder told Draco that Harry was on board.

'Well, let's get going then.'

'Of course.' The goblin said, hatred ingrained in his voice. The cart plummeted and Hermione looked slightly ill. Draco didn't feel ill, but remembered a bittersweet mix of memories, some of his father, some of flying at school, all of them brought back by the feel of the air rushing past his face. The cart came to a halt and queasily they got out. Some quick charmwork from Harry and the goblin was under his control, taking them to the Lestrange Vault instead. They climbed back onto the cart and went ever deeper. The rails seemed smoother now, and they certainly twisted less. That was good, everything was going far more smoothly. Draco looked around him, wondering whether this was going to be easier than they had thought. The cart stopped once again and the goblin led them on, ever deeper into the maze that made up the bank. Draco dropped some soil from his pocket every ten paces, hoping against hope that they would remain long enough to lead them out later on. Then they saw the dragon. The goblin had clearly forgotten some sort of procedure as it carried on regardless, only to be incinerated by the Dragon's breath.

'What do we do now?'

'Well, I'd suggest that first of all we try desperately to subdue that blasted dragon, before we become blasted little witches and wizards.' Draco suggested.

'How though? I know you're supposed to go for the eyes, but frankly, I don't think a conjunctivitis curse will cut it.'

'No, but aiming for the eyes doesn't mean you have to curse the eyes, they're just the vulnerable spot.' At that moment the dragon decided it would be a good idea to walk round the corner and find out what the noise was all about. It poked it's head round and saw, in the dim light, a trio of people. The dragon breathed in to flame and then suddenly it heard a strange noise

'Debilito.' The dragon collapsed into a heap, its flame ducts sealed and its muscles refusing to do what it wanted them to do.

'There we go. One times dragon dealt with. Now, where do you think that vault is?'

'We can't be that far away. There's a vault over there, do you think that could have been what we were going for?'

'It's worth a look. What's the worst that can happen?'

'Well, the dragon could wake up again.' Hermione pointed out.

'It shouldn't for a while.'

'That's something at least.' Said Harry removing the cloak. You know. I think this is the right vault.'

'Why do you say that?'

'Someone's carved the word Lestrange onto the door.'

'Seems like a good bet to me. How're we getting in?'

'I was rather hoping that we could use a lock picking spell.'

'Do they even exist?' Draco asked. Hermione merely smiled as if to say "watch this" and walked smartly up to the door. She stood there, thinking carefully, wand not moving at all. Then she waved her arm in a wide circle. From inside the door came the grinding of an ancient mechanism.

'Watch out!' Draco yelled. Hermione dived to one side as a nozzle opened in the middle of the door and squirted a foul smelling liquid out. Where it landed on the floor, the rock began to fizz and melt away.

'Well, they sure saw you coming, didn't they, Hermione. Any ideas about where you went wrong?'

'None.'

'Bugger.'

'You said it , Draco. That's the plan off the rails. Any ideas Hermione?'

'Didn't you say you could get sucked inside a vault if you touched the door. If we do that, then one of us can destroy the horcrux while the others try to escape.'

'I'll do it.' Draco said.

'What? No. There has to be another way.'

'Is there? When I've got this one there's only two left. Then you can get him. We can either stand out here for hours until someone comes to investigate why the door got set off, or else you two can escape . Go. I've got this one.'

'Draco. Surely there is something.'

'My mind is made up, Hermione. Good luck.' Draco stepped forwards touched the door and was sucked into the vault.

'What did you let him do that for? Help me get him out,'

'No. It's too dangerous, Hermione, we should respect his last wishes and leave.'

'How can you say that?'

'It's the sensible thing Hermione. Come on.'

'But, shouldn't we try to get him out?'

'No. Come on. It's the way things work. We leave him behind to save ourselves and then get blind drunk about it afterwards.'

Hermione followed Harry up the passageway they had just come down, past the dragon and back to the cart, sticking the gears into full reverse they had just enough time to hide under the cloak before they were back at ground level. Tears streaming down her face, Hermione stumbled after Harry out into the sunlight, where they apparated away back to the campsite.

Everywhere Hermione looked she saw something that reminded her of Draco. There was the place where he had smiled at her this morning, just after finishing his wand. There was where she had found him, crying himself to sleep over his father. There. It was no good. Tears once more began to well in Hermione's eyes and she stumbled through the kitchen doorway and collapsed on the same chair where Draco had brought her the tea that day Ron had left. On the table there was a note that hadn't been there before they had left. What could it be? Using her sleeves to wipe the tears from her eyes, Hermione picked it up and started to read.

Dear Hermione,

If you are reading this then you have found the letter on the table. It was charmed to appear whenever it seemed improbable that I should ever return. I'm not very good at talking about feelings, I'm sure you've noticed by now, but since I am now no longer with you it would seem like I can avoid any awkwardness. Hermione. I would just like to say thank you. Thank you for all the times you've stuck by me when no-one else has. I don't know where I'll be when you read this, but, above the ground or under it, I know I'll be missing you.

Now, do me a favour. Live life to the full, enjoy yourself to the full. As I'm writing this you're next door crying over Ron. I wish in many ways that you could cry that way over me, but I know that can never happen. Forget me.

Yours eternally.

Draco

XXX.