Beautiful Darkness by EssTheDreamer

***Chapter Four***

Of Wands and Discoveries

"I'd always thought that I'd have a dragon as my familiar. It was my childhood dream, you know. Draco and his Dragon, what a lovely catchphrase. I even had a stuffed dragon," said Draco, enjoying that his remarks made Hermione laugh until she started wheezing, at which point, she'd held out her hands, motioning him to stop.

"Honestly, Malfoy, you're too hilarious, stop! I'm just glad I've got an owl. How to explain this to mum, I don't know," said Hermione, petting Midnight through the cage. Draco frowned at the fact that she'd reverted to calling him Malfoy when she'd called him Draco just a while ago.

He then wondered why she never mentioned her father, remembering the memory of Kaitlyn talking about how her father let her. "Granger, this might be a personal question, but what happened to your father?"

"Oh. Well, he was killed in an alley when I was a year old. Mum was distraught, so we moved around a lot till we got here and put all of her efforts into me and her job. I … don't even know what he even looks like, because Mum got rid of all the pictures. But it's okay, Mum was always great, always gave me what I wanted, and what I could have," said Hermione, shrugging.

Draco didn't know how to properly respond to that, so he awkwardly patted Hermione's back. They were making their way back to Hermione's place, not wanting to apparate with their new found pets and all the stuff they were carrying. Then, they would head back to Diagon Alley for her wand.

"Wait! Shouldn't we drop off this stuff at the Magyk Librarium? We're going to practice and meet there anyways, so it would be easier to do keep everything there."

Draco nodded, and tired of carrying everything for the pets, which they'd been unable to transfigure, he suggested that he take all the items and Apparate there, while Hermione would walk the pets there.

"Sure. The doors a bit hidden, but it's way in the back in front of the huge tree," Hermione said, taking a hold of Akita's leash, and balancing Midnight's cage on the other hand.

When she made it to the library, Draco was standing there with a grin on his face, and his wand in his hand.

"What's there to smile about?" Hermione knew the library wasn't the best. It was an old library, but the doors still worked, and there were still some books, although some were ancient. One summer, when she was bored, she been scavenging around and found a nearly-preserved room that seemed to have some sort of magic keeping it clean. That was also where she'd found the books.

"I'm thinking of showing you one of my all-time-favorite spells from when I was a kid. When I'd behaved badly, mother would make me clean my room rather than having the house-elves clean it, but my favorite house-elf, Dipsy-Dot, showed me a neat spell. Makes everything clean and back to their best condition. Of course, she can do it better than I, being a house-elf … would you like to meet a house-elf, Hermione?"

Hermione wanted to know everything about the wizarding world, so of course, she nodded.

"Dipsy-Dot! I need you!"

All of a sudden, a tiny little thing, with big, floppy ears and and shiny eyes appears in front of Hermione, startling her.

"Master Draco, how can Dipsy-Dot help?" Its voice was squeaky, and with each syllable spoken, its eyes grew wider and its voice rose to a higher pitch.

"Well, for one thing, don't tell mother and father about Hermione, that's her right there," he said, pointing to Hermione. "And second, can you use your nifty cleaning spell that you taught me to fix things up? Thank you, Dipsy-Dot."

The elf bowed, and then waved its hands around, and then in a blink of Hermione's eyes, the library brightened up, the shelves were righted, and the patchy chairs and broken tables were all repaired. All in one blink.

In another blink, the elf was gone, and Draco was looking at Hermione, waiting for a reaction.

"So, you just … command Dipsy-Doy? Like a slave?!" Draco could tell Hermione was getting angrier each passing second from the glint in her eyes that was reminiscent of the time she got angry in her memories and burst with uncontrollable magic.

"No, no, no, Hermione!" he said, just as the chairs started shaking. "House elves do this because they want to. Their life goal is to please their master, no one is forcing them. I promise you, I treat my house-elves with the utmost respect, as do most wizards," he said, trying to placate Hermione.

"Hmph. Are you sure they want to work?" she asked, not believing Draco that someone would willingly work to clean, without any restrictions. The chairs, did, however, stop shaking from her uncontrollable magic.

"Yes, do you want to try firing Dipsy-Dot? See her reaction? It won't be pretty, or kind to the elf."

"Yes! Call her over, please!"

Again, Dipsy-Dot was brought over. Hermione leaned down to reach the elf, and patted her head. "Dipsy-Dot … do you want to be freed?"

As soon as Hermione uttered those words, particularly the last one, Dipsy-Dot jumped up in the air and leaped back from Hermione. Then, she started banging her head against the walls of the library, which were now clean.

"WHY does Master Draco and Missy Hermione want me gone!" she wailed, her head starting to bruise and bleed.

"Wait! Stop doing that, you're getting hurt!" When that didn't console the elf, she said, "You're not going to be freed!" she said, wanting to stop the elf from suffering.

Just as quick as she started harming herself, Dipsy-Dot stopped and healed herself. "Thank you, Missy Hermione! I promise I'll be the best elf ever!" The elf bowed before leaving.

Hermione looked at Draco; he seemed to be waiting for her to say something, and also a tad amused.

"Sorry … it's just that I, I felt bad for her, you know. When I was younger, the kids who'd used to bully me, they'd command me around like a slave. In history, too, when I found out that people were enslaved and treated badly, it just - made me angry. I'm sorry, really, I am," she said meaning it. She guessed not all things were the same in every scenario.

"Uh, it's OK. I never really thought of it like that, you know. The house elves were always just there when I was growing up. Anyway, here, take my hand, we should apparate back to Diagon Alley, you know, for your wand."

Hermione took Draco's hand, and in a blink, they were back in Diagon Alley.

"You were right, it gets better," said Hermione, still feeling a bit nauseous, but not as bad as her first time.

While they were walking to Ollivander's wand shop, Hermione asked, "How does one get into Hogwarts?"

"Well, typically, you get a letter on your 11th birthday, and you go to Platform 9 and ¾ at King's Cross Station."

After all Draco had shown her, a quarter platform wasn't that hard to believe. "Why didn't I get it then? I was born on September 19th, I should've gotten it!"

"Maybe that's why. You were born after the cutoff date for that year. But students like that usually get admitted for next year. You're moving around shouldn't have been much of a problem, I guess, but I'll have to look at my father's school governor records, today. I'll tell you what I can find out."

Hermione nodded, and followed Draco into a tiny shop lined with boxes upon boxes. There was one singular desk with a lantern over it, and a small chair in a corner.

Just then, an old man with glowing eyes appeared. "You're here for a wand, aren't you?" He took a look at Draco, before saying, "I remember your wand, I remember every single one. 10 inches, hawthorn wood, unicorn hair core. Hawthorn wood, complex like its owner. Good fit, I believe."

Draco looked at Ollivander, and remembered him saying something like that on his 11th birthday, as well. He remained unfazed, while Hermione was skeptical. She didn't believe in stuff like horoscopes and signs matching your personality, much less the type of your hand. But, she was in the wizarding world now, she was going to have to start believing in some stuff, one way or another.

Ollivander went to the back of the shop and brought out 13 boxes of wands. "Here, give this a go, child. Another Hawthorn, but with a dragon heartstring core." Hermione held the wand. While it was reasonably comfortable, it just … didn't feel right. She shot a spell she'd read about in one of the old books, Engorgio, at a pin on the table. Nothing happened to the pin's size, but the color did change.

"Hmm … try this one … vine, with a phoenix feather core." This time, she put her attention to a cup on the desk, trying to make it smaller with a Reducio, another spell in the books. However, unlike the color changing her last try, the cup shattered, sending shards all over. Thankfully it was empty, and Ollivander repaired it without a glance or a glare.

It went on like that for a while, and soon, they were down to the 13th wand. "13, a most unlucky number for most wizards. Let's see about you," he said, passing the wand onto Hermione, this time not saying a thing about its specifications like he did with the other wands.

As soon as the wand fit in Hermione's hands, she felt a rush of power flow through her. She'd always felt this like with her wandless magic that she'd been doing over the past few years, but the wand kept it in control, not zooming through her wildly and bursting out. She started floating, but she didn't even realize it, too focused on her wand. Draco looked at her in concern and tried reaching over to help her down, but Ollivander stopped him.

She started glowing as well, and the wand, this wand, it gave her a feeling of … belonging, finally feeling right somewhere. Soon, the glow was gone, and she was back on the ground. Her curls still held some static and were wild around her face, flyaways everywhere, but she didn't care, for she finally had a wand!

"This'll be it. 10 and ¾ , vine wood, dragon heartstring core. Vine is rare for most, but perfect for those who will reach great heights. It was a pleasure helping you find your wand, thank you," said Ollivander, kindly.

Draco reached into his pocket and dropped a couple of galleons on the counter, before reaching over to Hermione.

"Are you alright?"

"Alright? I'm feeling the best I've ever felt! Oh, Draco, how could I possibly thank you enough for bringing me to this wonderful world!" she said. Hermione was on a magic high, and she couldn't help but tackle Draco in a hug, in the shop.

Draco wasn't a touchy-feely person, he just wasn't raised that way. His mother was affectionate, but nowadays, the Dark Lord frowned upon any show of love, he believed "petty" feelings such as love weakened a person. So when Hermione hugged him, he didn't know what to do, but hug back, he hugged her as well, although with not as much enthusiasm Hermione did.

She stepped back from the hug, smiled brightly at him. She walked out of the shop, and Draco followed. She most definitely didn't notice the red twinge on Draco's fair skin.

"This really is the best day of my life. What's next on our agenda, Professor Malfoy?" Each step she took was lifted off with a bounce off of her feet. She truly was happy.

Clearing his throat, Draco said, "Nothing much, I think you should read all the books you purchased, and I'll meet with you, probably a couple days later. I'll find out what happened to your letter, in those days. I'll apparate you home." He grabbed onto Hermione, and in another blink, they were in front of her house.

Just before he turned to leave, she said,"Wait! Since you showed me around the magical world, how about I show you the muggle world? Just a part of it, at least."

'Why? Don't you hate the muggle world?"

"I just hate a few select people, not everyone. I guess the majority was rude to me, but I've met enough kind people to not be biased."

"Hmm … I'll owl you when I'll be back, we can go on that day, but only once. The muggle world is not somewhere I'd want to stay longer than needed."

"No worries, I just want to show you a favorite part of mine. I promise you'll enjoy it."

"Better keep your promises, Granger. Or the Malfoy monster's gonna get you, " he joked, eyes sparkling.

Hermione smirked. "What, is he going to tickle me to death?" she taunted.

Draco grinned, and then he attacked her neck with his fingers, and Hermione tried in vain to get out from his hold. She was laughing loudly, and with each attack with his fingers to either her neck or her belly, she was puddle of laughter.

He finally stopped tickling her, and Hermione's laughter slowly died down, her smile staying bright. She realized how close their faces were. Their noses were almost touching, and if she moved up just a bit, their lips would be millimeters away.

Draco also realized it, and instead of moving away, he moves closes, just a bit, but enough that Hermione can feel his breath on her. She never realized how many different shades of silver were in his eyes, and he never realized that her eyes weren't just brown, they were golden. Hermione closed her eyes and moved forward, tiling her head up.

Just then, Hermione's front door flew open, and Draco almost dropped Hermione. He didn't, however his grip on Hermione's waist tightened and they both moved their heads far apart, both blushing.

"Um … mum, hello," she said, unsure of how to proceed with this, embarrassed at being caught. Hermione never had friends over, much less a boy, so she wasn't sure how to proceed with this.

Mrs. Granger, contrary to how Hermione was expecting her mother to react, was overjoyed. She knew her daughter was different from others, she knew that weird, disturbing things happened to her, and sometimes she was bullied for it, but she stayed strong with the hope that Hermione was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and eventually, she would make friends. Looks like she did, though Mrs. Granger.

"Hermione! Who is this dashing young man, and how have you not introduced me to him?" her mother said, putting on an offended face.

Hermione gulped. "Um … this is Draco Malfoy, who also really has to get going now. Yep, now." She nudged Draco, in case he didn't get the message.

"Yes, of course, I must get going, Mrs. Granger. But, before I leave, I must say, your daughter is delightful," he said, winking walking away with a wave.

Hermione got the sense he only said that to annoy her, and make her think of excuses to explain to her mother.

Before her mum could ask any questions Hermione could not answer, she said,"Yes, well, mum, he's just someone I have to work with for a … renovation of the … old library! Yes! He's also going to tutor me, so I might be out of the house a bit, don't mind too much."

Mrs. Granger smiled. "Of course, Hermione, I understand. Come in, I was a bit busy at the hospital today, so I couldn't cook, but I ordered your favorite, chicken curry! Eat up," she said, pulling Hermione into the warm house, smiling at her daughter and hoping all was well.

The next morning, Hermione went straight to the library. She put the coin on the floor, from the bookstore, and said, "Open." Automatically, a pile of stacked books appeared. They were stacked in alphabetical order, and Hermione put each one of them on the shelves, in that order. She liked things to be organized.

After putting them all on the shelves, she decided she was going to read every single one of them, committing them to memory with her near-photographic memory, and she was going to be the brightest witch of them all, even if she was 6 years late, even if she didn't know how talented some of the witches could be. Nothing could stop her, not now that she found out so much.

But before she would tackle the books from the store, she went to the hidden room. It was just like always, a touch comfy, a touch dark. There, she had found it mostly empty except for a soft chair and three boxes full of books. She'd read two out of the of the three boxes, and she'd organized them, too, alphabetically so they'd be easy to find.

The black box was the only one she hadn't opened, due to the warning on the top. But Hermione wanted to learn everything, even the deepest, darkest spells, so she opened the box.

Inside, there were books with leather covers, books with intricate designs that seemed to be hand-drawn, books that were thicker and heavier than any book she'd encountered, save for possibly Hogwarts: A History, or the Essential Book of Spells.

The first of those "dark" books, the one at the top of the pile, was one labeled "Dark Magyck of Ancient Tymes".

Perfect, she thought, opening up the book. The best way to start is to start at the beginning.

Meanwhile, in a dark Manor, far, far away from Hermione's, Draco uncovered a book labeled "Muggleborn Hogwarts Students."

He discovered that Hogwarts had a special, secret policy towards muggleborns. Some muggleborns were rejected, as those were the ones who had slight forms of magic, such as telekinesis or highly vivid dreams. The other ones that were talented enough, were evaluated and observed by school governors and professors, mostly due to the fact that revealing magic to the outside world was dangerous, and had to be done in ways such that the knowledge was not given to the wrong people.

The students were organized alphabetically. He found Hermione Granger, after flipping past many pages and dates, written in a familiar script that he could just not pin down.

Observations: smart, bullied by muggle students, remarkably talented, (research on whether she's related to any pure blood squibs).

Too powerful, in fact. Seems to have built in anger and uncontrollable at times, and then remarkably controlled wandless magic, similar to that of a young Voldemort. REJECTED

Signed,

A. D.

It was only then, at the initials, that he realized that Albus Dumbledore, had signed it. To check his suspicions, he got out his transfer letter to Hogwarts, which was signed by Albus Dumbledore in the same, loopy, script.

She was rejected. For being powerful, more than Voldemort, enough to amaze Albus Dumbledore, himself.

Rejected. Pushed to the side. Taken from an opportunity of a lifetime.

He had some explaining to do to Hermione.

AN: Wow, this is by far the longest chapter I've written for this, at 3,000+ words! Sorry for the late upload, though.

I hope this answers all of your questions on why Hermione didn't get her letter. I imagine that due to the Secrecy thing, they would have to make sure it would be worth revealing the secret, and if Dumbledore saw how Hermione reacts to things and sees her raw power, he may second guess things.

Thank you all again, for you follows, favorites, and reviews! It makes my day to see them! For the plot twist that I mentioned in the last AN, it won't be here for a while, so unfortunately, you'll have to wait an see! :D

Remember to tell me what specific things you want to see Draco teach Hermione. So far, Transfiguration and and a mix of Light and Dark magic (basically magical theory, in a way) have been requested, and they shall be featured! :D

Thanks,

Ess

PS: Happy early New Years, and I have a one-shot that I have planned, roughly, that will be up either tomorrow, or the day after (New Year's, for me!), so watch out for that! :D

Reviews are a new wand, follows are tickles from Draco, and favorites are laughter from Hermione!
(:D)