The Darkwood Wand

Alibi

"Of course he wasn't alone, Harry," the crazy witch in Draco's bedroom said. "I was with him."

For a few frozen seconds, no one moved, spoke, or even breathed. Certainly Draco didn't feel capable of movement.

"You, Hermione? With him?" Potter breathed. "HERE?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. She looked rather fetching in Draco's green pajama top, a light flush high on her cheeks. "Yes, Harry, here."

Potter frowned. "How did we save the dragon in First Year?"

"We handed him to Charlie off the Astronomy Tower."

Draco scowled and shifted his feet in his embroidered slippers. That was what they'd been doing at the Astronomy Tower? Saving a murderous beast? Draco had gotten detention for that!

Potter was still suspicious. "What were the first words you ever said to me?"

"Has anybody seen a toad. Harry, it's really me."

"No, it can't be ..." Potter looked around the room, eager to find something to prove her wrong. The Auror was standing closest to the fireplace, while Hermione remained by the bed and Draco stood by his desk, the three of them forming an equilateral triangle. Potter's gaze fell on the red robe and he turned to Draco, his lightning scar standing out like an ugly wound.

"What did you do to her," Potter hissed.

"Harry!"

"What was it, Malfoy? Amorentia? Imperius? Some sick Death Eater potion?"

"Harry, listen ..."

"He must have Obliviated you," Potter said. "Obliviated you so you've forgotten who he was, what he's done." His green eyes narrowed behind round glasses. "I'm going to send you away, Malfoy, for a very long time."

Draco sighed. "I don't doubt it. She's a fool to think this makes any difference. Having her as my alibi would be worse than none at all."

Come back to us, the walls whispered. You belong here ...

"He is not going back to Azkaban," Hermione announced, just as she had in the old DADA classroom after Draco's wand gave her cat ears.

The witch then turned to Potter. "And I have not been Obliviated, Harry. I remember everything." She began counting on her fingers. "Draco Malfoy, Slytherin, former Death Eater. He let Death Eaters into Hogwarts, cursed Katie, poisoned Ron ..."

"Watched you get tortured," Potter chimed in. "Broke my nose!"

"Called me Mudblood, impersonated a Dementor, joined the Inquisitorial Squad ..."

"He wished you dead, too! And hexed your teeth! And ... and ..."

"Ratted us out to Rita Skeeter!" Hermione cried triumphantly, never wanting to be outdone. She glanced at Draco and he must have looked murderous, because she stopped listing his many sins and returned to the topic at hand.

"Draco wouldn't hurt me now," she said. "And he would never hurt Isobel. Her attacker was likely Tennant."

Potter gave Draco a long, considering look.

"Malfoy did something to you, Hermione," he said slowly. "Some spell. He captured you somehow and cast a spell."

Draco felt a chill down his spine. The scrawny git was edging close to the truth. Oh, what the fuck, it had all gone to shit anyway. Maybe Potter could help her break the Vanishing Spell after he left; Draco certainly had made no headway.

"You're not far off—" Draco began, then choked, unable to speak. "I ... I—" Again his throat tightened. "There was this—"

"You were saying something, Draco?" Hermione asked him smugly. He stared back at her, now understanding: That Vanishing Spell contract she'd drawn up included a secret tongue-tying clause.