A witch's heart [Draco Malfoy x oc]

The heart of the forest

"He's out of his mind", Cecily muttered, after inspecting my wrist for any sign of an injury (even though I had told her it wasn't so bad) "Completely out of his mind."
"Let me see", Laurel said and started carefully turning my wrist to all sides.
"I'm good, really", I reassured them. "He didn't do anything, he was just super stressed out because of the situation."

Laurel chewed on her lip.
"That does make sense, considering that he has a family name to save.
Drinking to the point of passing out or kissing a girl - that is not his girlfriend - when drunk does not make a very good image, does it? After what you told us, he's already stopped hanging out with his pureblood - obsessed friends and only keeps contact to those who aren't actively hurting others because of their blood status, like Zabini for example — so he tried to save his family's reputation.
Don't worry Niela, you are not the problem. The problem is that he was very, very drunk."

"I wasn't worried", I said, but out of some reason I felt relived. Laurel grinned. "Either way, you're welcome." 

+

The next day, I was invited for tea with Hagrid after school. I'd grown to like the half-giant a lot; he seemed to have an indestructible love for all that was weird. That day, we visited the centaurs again. They had stopped throwing me suspicious looks by now and started to accept my presence in the forbidden forest.
To be honest, all I did was learn about the creatures, help Hagrid with hurt animals and bathe baby unicorns (which was always fun to do). But this time we did not go into the forest to do any of those things.

Right after we entered, Hagrid pulled out a pair of giant scissors and told me to pull out my wand.
"Use your wand to remove the earth from this spot", he drew a big circle with his scissors, "and tell me when you found somethin'. I have to go and trim the Thestral's hair, it's grown way too long ..." and then he walked away.

Shrugging, I pushed up my sleeves and started working. I did it bit by bit, since I didn't know how big what I was looking for was.

However, after about an hour of careful digging, I was a bit too impatient to do it in small heaps, so I used my wand and stuck it into the earth. When my arm was about halfway in the forests floor, I felt something solid touching my wand. With newly gained curiosity, I thought "Wingardium Leviosa!" and a bunch of earth, worms and other stuff flew in the air, revealing a thin curved line.
The line reminded me of something - veins. They were out of the same material as the crystal. If I was right, I'd end up in front of the crystal when following them.
"Hagrid?", I shouted through the forest. No answer.
I placed my wand next to my throat and mumbled : "Sonorus." Then I tried again.
"HAGRID!"
My voice was about three times louder than normal. I sat waiting there for five minutes. Then I stood up, covered the vein with earth again, used my wand to paint a rainbow - colored x on the floor (since I had already used this spell safely I thought it wouldn't really break my promise to Malfoy) and marched towards the direction of the thestrals.

Since I was not able to see them, when going into the forest, part of my equipment was always raw meat. I had reached the spot where they normally were and threw some raw meat on the floor.

After a few moments the meat vanished. I grinned. "Hi", I said and threw another piece of meat which the Thestral caught in the air.
Then I started searching for Hagrid ...
who I found hiding behind a tree. The tree was about a third his size. "Hagrid", I said, slightly amused, "What are you doing there?"

Hagrid's face flushed in embarrassment. "Had to hide until you found them." "I found a vein-like looking crystal that's made of the same material as - "
"The heart of the forest.", Hagrid finished my sentence and nodded. "Well done, Niela. Let's go then."

+

After I had erased the rainbow X and shown Hagrid the charm I had used for it, we went straight into the centaurs territory, where we greeted Mother Amera and entered the cave of the crystal where the forest-elves greeted us.

"The veins ye saw", Hagrid explained, "Are pumping magic and light to the crystal. If someone hurts one of 'me, we have to act quickly, since it could interrupt the whole system. The crystal produces magic and distributes it around the forest, which holds it alive. Unfortunately it always takes long for me to do it, since I'm not really allowed to use magic ..."

I frowned. "Why?"

"Did Harry tell ye 'bout his adventure with the chamber of secrets?"
"Yes."
"Well, they thought I opened it."

Hagrid? Hagrid should have opened it? Whoever thought that he could do something like that, was an idiot.

"But Riddle opened it ... and you are not allowed to do magic anymore? Because of a misunderstanding, or rather, a false accusation?"
Hagrid nodded sadly.
"I'll change that, Hagrid."

"You will what?"

"I will convince the ministry of giving you your wand back. That's so unfair - I have to do something against it. Then you will finally be able to openly use magic."

"Ah, well thank you, Niela ... that's very kind of you ..." his eyes became teary, though he quickly patted them away with a giant handkerchief. I smiled at him. "You're welcome."

A few minutes later, Mother Amera approached us from behind. We stood up and bowed. "I have a question", I said, after watching the forestelves joyfully chatting in front of the crystal.
"Why were the Elves enslaved - or rather how? They seem a bit too powerful to just be overpowered and downgraded by wizards."

Mother Amera nodded. "A good question, Niela. Well, the elves started working for the wizards out of their free will. It was something they had fun doing, and they were never treated badly. It is an elves nature to help, and when the forests started to become smaller and weaker, a lot of them searched for a new home. At the beginning they weren't treated the way they are today."

"Did they get paid?"

Mother Amera chuckled. "That's a very human way of thinking. The elves did not want any payment. They thought - or rather think - of payment as unnecessary. You need to understand - back then they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted. They worked hard, of course, but they could rest whenever they wanted, dress however they wanted and were free to disobey certain orders, for example stealing or killing. It was more doing the wizards a favor than anything.
That, however, changed when the wizards started sneaking in harsher magical punishments into their contracts, without the houseelves noticing.
Suddenly, houseelves were treated like slaves ... and because of their kind - hearted nature, only few noticed what was happening. Most houseelves have forgotten what freedom feels like, so they don't seek to have it ... and those that have tried were, as a result, hated by the rest of the houseelve-community."

"So how can I help the house elves to be treated like they should be again?", I asked, desperate for a way to help.

"Spread awareness amongst the wizards", Mother Amera answered, "and teach the houseelves about their past values and rights. That is the only way."