The Greywitch Trials | Harry Potter AU

Break

The castle had been unnaturally frenetic for days. Ginny and Susan were regularly sent out stealth missions where they canvassed old residences used by the Death Eaters during the First Wizarding War and the time leading up to the Battle at Hogwarts. Hermione and Ron occasionally accompanied them, leaving Eloise nearly completely alone. On occasion, Charlie would appear around corners, his arms laden with ropes and a sack of something and ... was that a grappling hook? 

He came and went, but he was singularly focused on the dragon he'd supposedly tracked down. 

Percy was always around somewhere, drafting his little project - essays to petition the Wizengamot to change about twenty-six laws. Of course, Kingsley stood at his side and offered his input as a more senior Ministry worker. Kingsley and Percy were often holed up in the study, leaving Hermione, Draco and Eloise to haul their books and pages of notes on their research to the library. 

Draco had just loved that. During the time spent walking down the corridor, he'd spat out about thirty obscenities and managed to compare Percy to about six different species of Flobber Worm. Oddly enough, his viciousness had only made an exhausted Eloise laugh. 

She'd been up late the previous night, curled up in front of the fire, reading a boring roll of parchment on some ancient brotherhood of wizards who fanatically worshipped Merlin. It had been dry and awful, but a necessary prerequisite to the dusty tomb she was planning on taking on. But when she'd woken up with the darkest circles she'd ever seen under her burning eyes, she'd been considering the merit of her actions. 

After breezing through the day until her planned session with Hermione and Malfoy, she'd not felt truly awake until he'd started spewing snide comments, literally shocking her into wakefulness with her own laughter. 

Hermione was staring at her like she was insane. Maybe she was. Eloise just tucked her chin into the neckline of her woolly jumper to stifle her giggles. 

As if spurred by her laughter, Malfoy continued his steady stream of negativity long past their entrance into the library. As they settled into seats at the shadowy table, they'd pushed into an empty corner, she thought he'd finally come to an end, but that was too much to hope for. 

Of course, right as Malfoy quieted for more than a moment, Hermione piped up, "Really, Draco, I think you're far too hard on everybody. We're all doing our best to work together and - "

Draco's eye's flashed, "Don't kid yourself, Granger. The only way we get out of this is by shattering the Wards. Weasley and Shacklebolt can write new laws and essays and all that bollocks until they're blue in the face, but it doesn't actually do anything. At least Bones and Weaslette are doing something."

That was another thing that surprised Eloise the more time she spent with the Slytherin. He actually seemed to respect Susan as well as Ginny, though he was far less inclined to admit to it. Maybe it was the nature of the high-risk, high-reward quests they set off on; maybe it was their sheer determination. 

"We need a multilateral approach to ending this, Malfoy," Hermione's voice frosted over. "We can't just shatter the barrier and expect everything to go back to the way it was."

"Yes, yes." Draco waved a hand in her direction like she was an irritating fly, "I understand that. But there's only so much time we have to do this. Once the Dark Lord has grown tired of searching for his new Horcrux, his focus will be solely on us."

Eloise blinked, confused. She didn't know what the term Horcrux meant, but it niggled at her mind. None of the other Order members had ever mentioned Voldemort was searching for something, though she never attended their closed-door meetings, so perhaps they hadn't thought she'd needed to know. After all, Percy was so adamant about her uselessness.