Curious and Curiouser

16: Progresses Sake

Hermione waved Draco closer to their group after they had successfully failed to stun Potter three more times.

"Would it work with a different spell?" Hermione asked him without looking up from the piece of parchment she was scribbling on.

"Err-" Draco started, he honestly wasn't sure, he had asked the room for protection from a stunning spell, not from something else, "I don't know," He said slowly, trying to carefully choose his words, "I don't think so, we did specifically ask the room for protection from a stunning spell," he finished with a shrug. He had completely forgotten to add his usual malice to his voice, it was difficult to show contempt when he was just so damn curious about what they were up to.

Hermione glanced up at him and nodded, her brown eyes flashed back to meet Harry's, "Petrification?" She asked matter-of-factly.

"Yeah," Harry said in a somewhat resigned tone that Hermione missed. To Draco's delight, the boy who lived did not seem overly enthusiastic about his role in the process. And to Draco's even greater delight Harry went ramrod stiff and collapsed backwards onto the beanbag when Hermione's spell hit him.

He smirked to himself.

This room, he had basically lived in this room for the entirety of his sixth year.

A room that had held the answers he needed all along.

He had tried for months to repair that vanishing cabinet, and he had failed. As he had grown more and more desperate, he figured he might be able to ask the room to fix it.

That had taken some time, but in the end he had been successful. He was sure he had uncovered more of this room's secrets than Potter or any of his friends.

He was jerked out of his reflection with the realization that he was supposed to be helping and said, "I think--" He paused, unsure of how to continue, he met Weasley's eyes from where the other man was bent over, releasing Potter from the body bind curse, "I think, I might be able to ask the room--" He faltered again before continuing, "I might be able to ask the room-- just try it again will you? With the body bind curse?"

Weasley looked at him curiously, but Granger was already pulling Potter to his feet and taking her position across from him.

"Ready?" The brunette called over her shoulder at Draco.

She wasn't sure what he was going to do, but it wasn't worth her questioning him. Worst case scenario Harry just ended up petrified again.

"Yeah," He called back, screwing his eyes shut in concentration.

Somewhere seemingly far away, Draco heard Blaise start counting down from five.

He had lied to them before, with the shit he had made up about honesty. Maybe that was a part of it, he wasn't sure, what he did know, beyond a shadow of a doubt though, was that to get anything from this room you had to really need it.

"Four," Blaise's voice rang out in his ears.

You had to need what you were asking for, wanting it wasn't enough. He had only been successful with the vanishing cabinet when Lord Voldemort had made it clear that failure would cost his mother her life.

"Three," He heard Blaise say, his own heart rate was picking up.

So, following that logic he had to need Potter to not be hurt. He grimaced to himself, the thought was distasteful.

"Two,"

His eyes still screwed shut, Draco allowed a twisted path of logic to settle in his head, Potter was the reason that Granger was helping him with his father's case, if Potter got hurt Granger wouldn't help him, and if Granger wouldn't help him, he would lose his father.