Silver and Gold // Dramione

The High Road

6th Year, September 28

Hermione's reveal that the spell was Irish, likely Celtic or Gaelic in dialect, left the spell's interpretation pretty much obvious. And now, after she spent hours in the Library, with Draco hovering nearby, there was no doubt in his mind that she knew exactly what the spell did.

He wasn't sure how to react when she accurately guessed it in the dormitory when they returned at nightfall.

- 'I think it reveals a person's magical signature' - she said once they were through the threshold.

- 'I'm not allowed to tell you if you are right or not' - he responded, nodding in her direction.

- 'Draco the words literally mean "Reveal Signature" in the Celtic dialect! There's no if i'm right, I am right' - he sighed, knowing she knew, but unwilling to give her the satisfaction of an approval.

When she asked why the spell had been performed on him in the first place, he actually answered truthfully. Or semi-truthfully. He didn't say where, or who had performed it, but only that the Black Pureblood line was in question, and that he had been requested for an evaluation.

- ' Do you know why?' - she asked after he told her.

- 'Do I know why, what?' - he responded, growing clearly annoyed at her questions. He knew she had no intentions to stop, she was sprawled on the floor, surrounded by checked-out library books, and had a scroll covered in ideas and translations.

- ' Why your family line is in question?' - her question raised the initial confusion Draco had felt when he was told that his family connection was being tested. Before he could answer she spoke again.

- ' Do you not want to know why? I mean you've boasted your whole life running around praising your Pureblood status, even degrading others for their inferior types. But now that your status is called into question, you don't particularly seem to care that your supposedly pure blood, might not even be pure?' - her voice nagged something in Draco, the confusion spiked again and he looked down at her books.

- 'What does it say about a ball of fire?' - he asked, avoiding her accusation that his blood could be tainted. Logically he knew that Voldemort requesting the family line's blood be tested menat he assumed there was a tractor of impure relative in the midst, but he refused to acknowledge the possibility.

- 'Nothing actually. I didn't find the exact spell, but this old Celtic book says something about a bloodline ritual to test for legitimate heirs. I think it's a variation of that, that family lines have similar magical signature's. It says the feelings of burning, dryness, and fire are normal, but it says the magical signature is usually a glowing orb of gold' - she responded to his question, allowing him to avoid the topic of his blood status. He was, after all, allowing her dirty blood in his presence, and he concluded that it was only nice of her to let him engage in the conversations he sought appropriate.

That conversation ended there, and Draco retreated to his room for the night, leaving her laying on the ground and intently translating the Celtic ruins.

That was last night. It was Mid-Sunday and Hermione had left the common room, breaking for the first time from her studying, and declared she had promised Harry and Ron she would watch Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs.

Draco barely looked at her as she left, relieving in the fact that she would be out of the room for a few hours and he could think straight without her constant questions. He tried to brush them off as much as possible, but he noticed when he gave her a sliver of information, she should be quiet for a longer period of time than when he gave her nothing to think about.