Harry Potter and The Vanished Slytherin Prince

Chapter 8

Harry and Draco go for an outing

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"I'm sorry, sir, we only allow animals on board if they're registered emotional support pets or seeing eye dogs." The woman's voice is crackly over the phone, and Harry nudges Draco's nose to feed him a piece of chicken.

"Oh he is." Harry says, thinking quickly. "I'm a veteran, he's an emotional support pet."

"Thank you for your service." The woman says genuinely, and Harry doesn't mention that he hadn't fought for Britain . "Can you give me your pet's registration numbers for the form?"

"Erm, yeah. I'll have to go dig up the paperwork, can I call back?"

"Of course, sir." She says, sounding like she's not really expecting to hear back.

"Alright, thank you very much." Harry says, then hangs up.

He brings Draco through the floo and goes straight to Hermione's desk.

"Oh, hi Harry, everything alright?" She asks.

"Splendid, erm. You can still create fake documents, right? Legally?"

Hermione laughs.

"Want to tell me what you need them for?"

Harry sits opposite her and explains his plans.

"You're sure you want to bring him onto the ocean ?" She asks, eyeing Draco warily.

"Oh yeah, Malfoy's favorite stories are set around the ocean. You know, sailors, sea people, ocean towns. I think he'd probably like to visit, you know? He's been cooped up lately."

Hermione sighs.

"Harry-"

" Do not tell me my cat is not Malfoy." Harry cuts her off firmly. "I'm tired of hearing it, and even if I'm wrong, which I'm not, Draco is very well-behaved when the situation calls for it and I'm sure he'd enjoy an outing."

Hermione sits back in her chair, pressing her lips together for a moment.

"Alright, Harry. I'll humor you." She sighs. Harry huffs. "What paperwork do you need, I'll put in a request for it."

"You don't create it yourself anymore?" Harry asks, surprised.

"I've a whole department now, Harry, I've got other things to do." She smiles.

Hermione has worked her way to Head of the Department for Muggle Relations and Wix Integration (Wixtegration, as Harry and Ron call it behind her back). She provides equivalent paperwork - school records, job references, medical records - that translate wizarding things into a muggle equivalent.

"I need something saying Draco's registered as my emotional support animal." Harry says, which makes Hermione laugh softly.

"Well, I don't feel any moral opposition to that. I'll get things sorted here and owl the paperwork to you when it's done."

It's fairly easy to get himself a ticket after that, and he's greatly looking forward to the weekday trip.

"I swear, it's been ages since I've been to the sea, this is a long time coming." Harry tells Draco over dinner. Draco meows.

"I know, there's nothing stopping me from just apparating to the coast, but it feels like cheating somehow, like if you're going to the sea you have to do the work to get there or something."

Draco laps up his pumpkin juice while Harry goes on about his previous trip, back when Rose was a baby and he'd brought her and Ron out to give Hermione a break from her crying.