Vexed- A Dramione Fanfic

11. Aleya

One thing was for sure. There was no way they could escape a visit to the Marshlands. No matter the amount of danger, they knew they had to do it. But they needed a foolproof way of doing so without losing out on the information the two had gathered in case of any mishap. As much as Draco hated spreading the Malfoy beans everywhere, he knew they had to do the inevitable. They had to get Potter involved. Before Hermione left for the day, they had decided to call Harry in the next day. It was decided that they would leave out the recent strange behaviour of the Family Tree Tapestry. Both knew it was the best to keep anything absurd related to Draco out of the picture for now.

As Hermione reached her flat, she felt the actual burden of their findings take a toll on her. She had seen a new side of Malfoy. She had seen how burdened and guilt-stricken he was. He had not forgiven himself for all the bad that he had done. She slumped down against the kitchen wall as she finally let loose and cried. She wept for Silvius and Adelia. She wept for their unborn child. She wept for all those that suffered because of the baseless prejudices. She wept for those that were lost in the War. But most of all, she wept for Draco.

She dragged herself up and got into the bed. That night she slept dreaming of hidden cottages, dark forests, Will-o'-wisps and troubled stormy grey eyes.

Next day morning, she was up early and ready to leave for the Manor. She had owled Harry to meet them there in about half an hour's time.

At nearly half past nine, Draco & Hermione were seated in the library. Harry would be there any minute now. As if on cue, an elf knocked the door to announce his arrival. The duo stood up as Harry entered the library. The sombre demeanour they had worried Harry.

"Come sit down Harry." Said Hermione patting a place next to her on the sofa while Draco asked an elf to bring in some tea and biscuits.

"So?" Harry looked at them expectantly.
"Best you tell him, Granger." Draco urged.

Hermione knew the pressure that was mounting on the young Malfoy and did not want to add the burden of explaining the predicament to Harry on him. So, she narrated all that they had found out till then to Harry. From finding the diary to the relevance of the Will-o'-wisps, the tragic story of Silvius and Adelia. They left out any mention of the Family Tapestry. Had they mentioned anything about Silvius' name on it, Harry would have wanted to examine it and in turn, would notice the blank counter next to Draco's name. That was one riddle Draco would rather solve himself.

"How can I help you both? Do you need more texts? Sources? Or even permissions to look in more places?" Harry asked. He was genuinely really concerned now. All that they had told him seemed to fit into the puzzle that lay in front of them, yet large chunks of it were still missing.

"Potter, we need you to make a few investigations. We tried to figure out who made the time turner for Silvius but found no leads. And his seemed to be of the indefinite kinds, something special, the kind that only the Ministry holds records to. The Ministry has banned and regulated Time Turners since fairly recent times, so hopefully your Ministry records and sources can bring up something. At least we will know what we are looking for or what happened to them."

"Okay. Terry and I will conduct the investigations personally considering the sensitivity of the matter at hand. Cannot tarnish the Malfoy name over nothing." Harry looked at Draco.

"Thanks, mate." Draco said in all sincerity.

"And Harry, we both were planning to visit the Marshlands today. To see if we can find any trace of the cottage, now that we have a fair idea of where and what to look for. We won't be needing any reinforcements. We know it's some ancient magic at play and not any dark wizards. Plus, we both are enough trained and well versed with duelling skills."
Hermione was seriously hoping Harry would get convinced. She knew that she was trying a longshot, but no harm in trying at least.
"Plus, if you send anyone with us, and some strange magic does affect us, neither of us nor the reinforcements will be able to help anyone. The more people you send, the more we put in danger." Draco added.