Hex Me or Kiss Me Book One

Who They Believe In

They spent several fruitless hours in the library, pouring through many of the books Draco had already read earlier in the year in his unsuccessful research attempts. Harry was listless, and it made Draco irritable. He was trying to control his temper, but it was wearing thin. He snapped another book shut and sat pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed.

Harry sighed and pushed another book away from him. He hadn't said much of anything, and he couldn't help thinking that Draco was right, that there wouldn't be anything there to help them and the whole thing was stupid and hopeless. He pulled another book to him and began skimming it, not even really seeing the words anymore. He gazed up at Draco, his head resting on his hand. Draco looked annoyed, but he still didn't say anything to him; he just let his eyes slide back down to the book in front of him.

Harry didn't take his slightly out of focus eyes from the book until he heard someone enter the library. No one else had come in the entire time they'd been in there.

It was Hermione. She looked slightly flushed, like she had rushed there.

"I went all the way up to the common room, but you weren't there, so I thought you'd be in here," she said.

Harry stared at her for a second, but didn't say anything.

She raised an eyebrow. "I grabbed as many books as I could find ..." she said, dropping her very big, very full bag on the table.

Draco looked up when the girl came in. He thought he would never been so grateful to see Granger as he was then. He smiled and came over to look at the books, glancing at Harry to see how he was reacting.

Harry stared at them, but didn't get up.

Hermione frowned and began taking the books out. "What's wrong with him?" she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

Draco frowned. "First he yelled at me for giving up, and now he seems to have done exactly that," he complained. Draco began reading the spines of each book and, despite being annoyed with Harry, found himself caught up in the strange collection.

"I think these should be really useful," Hermione said loudly to Draco. "Look at how old some of them are, and one you can't even get open without using a drop of blood, if that's not a book for Dark Magic, I don't know what is."

Harry perked up a bit at that. "Which one?" he asked.

Hermione handed said book over.

Draco was already immersed in another volume but relaxed a bit when Harry seemed to wake up. "This one is real nasty," he said with a smirk. "Ways to force others to do your bidding, including a number of different types of binding spells." He began making different piles for different topics and placing them in order of most promising.

"Is that good?" asked Harry, coming to stand next to Draco now.

"Good for us, maybe," Draco said. "Might give us answers on both spells." He smiled at Harry, and held up another volume. "This one is a compendium of magical toxins."

Harry sighed with relief. "These'll take ages to get through," he said, looking at all the books.

"Not with three of us reading," Hermione piped up. "And think of all the answers we could find in here. We may even come across answers that may be useful for ... other things."

Harry nodded, knowing that she was talking about Horcruxes.

Draco nodded, not catching the subtext of their conversation. "Let's get them back to the tower," he said. "Has the game let out yet?"

Hermione sighed. "Yes, so it'll be hard to get some quiet. Apparently we won. They're celebrating, although I must say it is a bit more subdued than usual."