Astoria → Draco Malfoy

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

"walk a fragile line"

Astoria waited eagerly outside of Slughorns office - for the first time in so long, she finally felt as though she had a lead, something to cling onto, and it was bliss. Everything felt as though it was falling into place, soon, they would have Slughorns help, they knew how their parents were getting around the castle, they knew more than they ever had before, finally they were ready.

"Any luck?" Theo raised his brows once he saw Astoria.

And for once, she could nod. "Yes."

Everyone rushed towards her, "spill, now!"

"I spoke to Hermione, and she had a few ideas. First, the map doesn't show the Chamber of Secrets, or the Room of Requirement - whatever that is - but the names were nowhere near where those two would be, so it's not that," she said quickly.

"So?" Blaise encourage her.

"It can't be a Polyjuice potion either, so the people we saw yesterday," she nodded to Draco, "were exactly who they were supposed to be. If someone takes the potion, it's still their normal name on the map. So now we have two possibilities. Option one, somehow, they became animagi-"

"Aniwhat?" Pansy cut her off, "I've never heard of that."

Draco turned to face her, "it's when someone can transform themselves into an animal at will."

Pansy nodded, "how long does that take to learn?"

"At least one month, so technically, it's possible," she raised her brows, "but it seems difficult."

Theo stepped forward, shaking his head, "my father isn't smart enough for that."

"But then again," began Daphne, "we haven't seen your father on the map." Daphne looked at her sister, "do you think he could do it?"

Astoria gulped, "I think if he really wanted to, he could."

"How about your mother?" She turned to face Blaise.

"Again, I think she could if she wanted to."

"And you two?" Daphne looked at Pansy and Draco.

"I think," Pansy glanced over at Draco, "the same as everyone else. They're dedicated, probably enough so to become animagi."

"What was the other option?" Draco questioned Astoria; his brows furrowed.

"They could be using an invisibility cloak or a strong enough Disillusionment Charm." She thought back to what Hermione had said, "I think a cloak is more likely."

"Didn't Potter have one of those?"

Astoria nodded, "but apparently, you can make one yourself. So they could have cast a strong charm on some fabric and made their own one."

"I think that makes more sense."

Everyone nodded around her, "it seems much easier than each one of them learning how to become an Animagus, and each of their animagi being small enough that we would see them on the map, but not when we got to the armoury."

"So we know something now at least, we have an idea of how they might be moving around the castle, but what else?"

Blaise turned to look at the other students, "we should ask about the Lethifold, that has to be them."

"Lethifolds aren't native to Scotland, it can't be a coincidence," Astoria said, remembering her revision of the subject, "it can't be anything other than them, it wouldn't make sense."

"Well then," said Draco, "we should talk to Slughorn, see what he has to say." He knocked on the door before the others had a chance to object.

"Do come in!" They heard Slughorn's cheery voice call from the other side of the door, swinging it open with one wave of his wand.