"": dreams.

Italics:thinking.

Bold:Letters and notes.

-/-: time lapse.

Chapter Four- An Aging Potion?

It had been two days since she had received the letter and only now did she have time to look at it. Grabbing her new book from her bedside shelf she opened it to reveal the letter, her name ever so delicately written across the letter face. Without checking it for spells, she carefully opened the letter rolling her eyes at the shortness of the message, wishing they would give her more than just a couple of lines every time they wrote.

Granger,

Draco has informed me you may have a solution. I hope this is true. If you wish to meet with us, you are going to have to come to us. Apparat to us, yes we know you can and if you truly help us that knowledge will be kept between us, come to us at Malfoy Manor and please do so quickly. We do not like to be kept waiting.

Lucius Malfoy

Crap. She was so dead. Checking the time with a flick of her wand she found it was only 9:30 in the morning. She could go and come back before her evening classes, no one would know she was gone if she was quick. Nodding to herself she decided to give it a go, reaching back down to the shelf she grabbed her notebook and papers and set to leave. The last thing she grabbed was her coat, standing in the middle of her empty dormitory, she apparated with a small pop.

-Malfoy Manor-

When Hermione regained her balance she was standing in the middle of one of the many drawing rooms of Malfoy manor, with a very startled and wide eyed Lucius Malfoy sitting in front of him. Standing up straight she gathered her books and papers closer to her chest, before looking the man dead in the eye.

"I'm here like you wanted, and the next time you try and hold the fact I am able to apparat as a threat, I won't be sharing what I have found. Now are we going to do this, or are you going to keep looking like a startled fish?" She said calmly, watching as the man's startled expression turned into a glare. The man stood, walking out of the room not even bothering to answer her. Hermione followed with a roll of the eyes, wondering for maybe the millionth time why she was bothering to help. Following behind the man, her eyes connected with Draco's when they passed him, which caused him to stop what he was doing and fall behind his father.

"About time you showed up, father and mother have been absolutely livid with worry." Draco whispered to her, however, his voice did not hide the concern and worry he felt as well. Hermione felt a pang of guilt surge through her chest, knowing that she wasn't just helping the three adults she was giving Draco back his parents and aunt.

"well I'm sorry, but I had a lot of school work to do. Sometimes I can't just drop everything and come to help you people you know." She replied with a little too much anger in her voice for her liking. Draco moved to his father's side at her reply, his gaze turned downwards towards the floor, hiding his unshed tears to anyone who would look. Draco did not want too weak, not now, he needed to be strong for his parents and aunt. He needed to be strong, because if he wasn't he did not want to think what would happen if the Dark Lord found out. Looking at his father from the corner of his eye, he knew he was scared too. He had yet to tell the Dark Lord of what was happening to his family, nor had he gone to any meetings called, which was never good for the family. Walking into the dining room in which Narcissa and Bellatrix sat eating brunch, Lucius and Draco sat down and served themselves. Hermione, on the other hand, sat a few seats down from the four and pulled all of her notes out in front of her, completely ignoring the food. The three adults watched her, while Draco ignored everyone and ate, Hermione who had finished preparing her papers looked up at the adults ready to showcase her findings.

"I may, may, have come up with a solution, it will take a while to complete and It will be stressing. However, if it works, by my calculations, it should transform you back into your adult forms." Hermione stated, not taking her eyes off the people before her. She saw a nod from Narcissa, which seemed to be encouraging, and she took it as such. "In year four we had the Triwizard tournament, one of the rules was that no one under the age of seventeen was allowed to participate which made a lot of students angry. Two of those students were the Weasley twins, they really wanted to be in the tournament and so they created a potion that would trick the age line that Dumbledore drew. It worked for about thirty seconds, then it backfired on them and turned them old. What I propose is that we take the Weasley twins as an example."

"You wish to make an aging potion?" Draco interjected, Causing the three adults to look over at him. Draco just stared at Hermione with a doubting look, wondering just what in the hell she was thinking even bringing up the incident as an example.

"Yes, Draco, I wish to make an aging potion and if you have a problem with that, you come up with something to help your parents get back to their original age." Hermione retorted, slamming the notebook she had been reading from on the table.

"I think an aging potion is a good idea actually." Stated Narcissa calmly, making everyone looking at her in shock. "Miss Granger does not seem to be the kind of person to bring a half-hearted thought of a plan, and to be honest if she believes this could work, why can't we give it a try? What do we have to lose?" Narcissa continued, making a small smile come onto Hermione's face.

"I, unfortunately, agree with my sister. If this returns my sister and Lucius back to their original age, I don't care if it's the most disgusting potion in the world, which it better not be, I will help any way I can." Bellatrix said through clenched teeth hating the fact she had to compliment the young girl.

"It will take about 3 months to brew properly because of all the changes to the original potion I will have to make, this time also includes test times. If you can wait that long, I will promise you I will put all of my time and effort into changing you back." Hermione said proudly, making sure to make eye contact with each adult.

"We will wait the time you have requested Granger. However, you dare stray, you dare fail, or give any of us the impression that you are not doing what you promised us, there will be consequences." Lucius piped up for the first time that morning. Hermione nodded her understanding, already packing up her stuff to head home. "If she doesn't mind, Bellatrix will watch your progress." He continued, making both Hermione and Bellatrix look at him suddenly both shocked.

"Lucius you cannot be serious, me watch her?" Bellatrix exclaimed, jumping slightly when she heard the scraping of a chair to her left. Looking over to see Hermione standing up at the table, chair pushed back, papers in hand and a glare on her face, directed at Bellatrix.

"I don't care what the lot of you do, but if you wish for me to make this potion do not get in my way, and if you truly want Bellatrix to watch over me, she better start treating me better or it may just longer than three months." She said calmly, before storming out of the Dining room, into the foyer and out the front door, not even stopping to look back at the sound of footsteps, before apparating away back to Hogwarts. She collapsed onto her bed as soon as she arrived, tossing her books to the ground and curling up. She sighed, why she had been caught up in this she would never know. Why they had come to her in the first place she would never know. Rolling onto her back she looked up at her ceiling and sighed again, hearing her stomach rumble. Waving her wand, she watched as the time appeared before her, 12:30, dammit she had been there longer than she wanted. Good thing though, it meant it was lunch time, getting up from the bed she picked up her papers from the floor and placed them on the bed. Taking her coat off she hung that on her bed post, and slowly made her way down to the dining hall ready for some lunch. She would start on the potion tomorrow, till then she would eat and go over her notes one more time to make she was completely ready to brew.

So….Hey, guys! Long-time no see. And I mean very long time no see. I am so sorry for the wait on this chapter, I cannot believe it has been so long since I updated and I am so sorry for that. First off, I would like to thank everyone who read, followed, favourite and reviewed this story even though it was inactive, you guys were the driving force for this chapter. Without you, I don't know how much longer it would have taken to come out, but it's here. Secondly, so many things have happened to stop this coming out Sooner. I got engaged! I left school. I became an aunty twice. I enrolled back in school now studying writing as a profession. I was very very sick for a long time and I have been having difficulties with my health. So I'm really sorry I haven't been able to write in a long time, however, it shouldn't happen again, but if it does make sure to scold me! Hahaha, anyway I hoped you enjoyed this chapter because there are many more to come, I can't wait to explore the potion making side to this fic, and also the relationship side to the fic. I hope you will stay with me as I explore this story. Thanks to everyone who reads my writing, I never did think I would ever post something on fanfiction but here I am chapter 9 and still going, so thank you to all of you. Anyway enough from me, I hope you like the chapter and as always, read, review, follow and favourite.

Love you all,

Soul :)