Turning Points

Turning Points: Chapter Seven

Draco found out why nobody ever used this loo the next night while tending to the polyjuice potion. They were using Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, as it had worked well in second year when Hermione had used it. Draco was sure that somebody would walk in on him when he was working on it in the middle of the day, but Hermione had assured him that nobody ever came near the room.

As soon as he was finished with the stirring and adding of ingredients, Draco rushed out of the bathroom and to the Room of Requirement to let his frustrations out. Instead of it being empty, however, he found Hermione in there dueling with... Potter?

The room's walls were lined with pillows and there was a bookcase full of books hidden in a corner. The floor was wooden and lined with scorch marks where curses had undoubtedly rebounded and hit, marring the golden sheen forever. Hermione's hair was up in a high ponytail and she was wearing some strange outfit, 'Muggle,' he presumed. Harry, on the other hand, was in full wizard regalia, which shocked Draco a bit. He was used to seeing the boy in Muggle clothing when not in class. He had a sword holster on one side, "Bloody lunatic," Draco murmured, and wore robes of the deepest red color. His face was sneering and Draco knew this wasn't a match of friendly fire.

"What the BLAST is going on in here?" he roared.

Hermione stopped at once and muttered a charm which stopped the Harry Potter replica from moving. Looking at him reprovingly, she started screaming about wanting some privacy to practice, not wanting to smell like cabbage and a couple of other things about cats or bats or something just as confusing before demanding to know what he wanted.

"I just wanted something to punch. Care to volunteer yourself, love? But on the other hand, Potter will be just fine. Now move out of the way and watch a man do battle."

Hermione stepped out of the way and muttered the charm to turn the Harry Potter double into advanced mode, enjoying the chance to watch Draco squirm. He floundered a bit at first, not ready for the attack, and soon started taunting the double, attempting to make it foul up. After about half an hour of watching the ridiculous duel, Hermione whispered the charm to stop the Harry Potter double from moving and started hexing Draco herself from behind. Not prepared for such an attack, he soon fell prey to her curses and was forced to concede admit defeat.

Grumbling about his verbal battle not working on the now immobile Harry Potter, Draco grew even angrier when Hermione burst out laughing. Quickly turning around and pointing his wand at her throat, he asked, "Exactly what is so bloody funny, Granger?"

"Just that you're so mad about Harry not responding to your taunts..." she trailed off, bursting into a fresh bit of mocking giggles.

Slightly perturbed that she wasn't afraid of him in the least, even though he was holding her up against the wall at wand point, Draco pushed his wand deep into her throat and demanded an explanation. "You will tell me, Granger, or you'll be in so many pieces they won't even be able to tell that you were once human," he threatened.

"It's... not... even... Harry," she said in between snorts of laughter. "Now please remove your wand... from... my neck before... I curse you... again."

"What do you mean 'it's not Potter?'" he asked, bringing his wand back slightly. "That," he pointed at the prone figure of Harry Potter, "Is most definitely The-Boy-Who-Wouldn't-Die." He took a minute to take in the features of the body frozen in time. The ugly disfiguring scar was there, his eyes were the same ever-haunted green... everything matched the description of Harry Potter.

"No, it most definitely is not."

"EXPLAIN!" Draco demanded.

"First, I don't need to explain myself to you. You belong to me. I do not and will not ever belong to you. However, since you asked so nicely," she said with a sneer, "I needed a sparring partner. That," she pointed at the same area of the room Draco just had, "Is what the room gave me. Harry would never use dark curses against me, or anyone, for that matter. He's too nice of a person. That niceness is what is going to get him killed. Your failure to bait this Harry just goes to show you that you can't always depend on you mouth to get you out of everything. Don't waste energy attempting to weaken them with your mind.

"And telling people that you're a Malfoy won't do you any good during a war, either. Especially not when your father is on Voldemort's side and plans on bringing you over there with him. The strategy half of your dueling aptitude is seriously lacking. You do make up for it with your knowledge of the most inane curses, though. Too bad your father knows them too and has undoubtedly passed on the knowledge to those who are on that side.

"We'll need to create some curses of our own, Draco. It'll help us immensely. And let's make sure that there are no possibilities for counter curses. I don't need them to recruit Snape back or anything and have him create potions to cure any fallen Death Eaters. Once they're down, they need to stay down. Agreed?"

"Yeah, Granger, sure," he nodded, annoyed at himself but even more so at her. 'Who does she think she is telling me what to do? I'll show her... one of these days, I'll get her back. Nobody bosses a Malfoy around and gets away with it.'

"Great! Now how's that polyjuice coming?"

"It's coming. That's actually why I came here. You never told me that--that thing lives in there! Incessantly talking about me dying so we can spend eternity together in her U-bend... completely mutters, I tell you. For a ghost, she's surprisingly lacking."

"You've never heard of Moaning Myrtle?"

"Well I don't normally pay attention to gossip regarding the girl's bathrooms, no. But now I know why nobody ever goes in there. You'd have to be insane to want to be anywhere near that ghost. Give me Peeves any day," he said, laughing.

Shocked they were having a civilized conversation, Hermione quickly switched topics. "So who were you planning on asking to join us?"

"Crabbe and Goyle, naturally. But also, I thought we'd try Blaise again and there are about five Ravenclaws who are to go to the Death Eater initiation ceremony next year who are likely to switch to our side in order to beat him. From what I've heard, they don't want to join, but are being pressured by their parents. Maybe we could even get a spy out of one of them. They're smart enough to be trained in Occlumency and other things of that sort," he said.

"I'll agree to everyone except Zabini. I gave him a chance and now he'll just have to go down with the rest of his family."

"It's your family too, Hermione. Even if you never knew them on a familial level, they're yours. They created you. Give him a chance, he's been brainwashed since birth to believe this stuff. And if he refuses again, you can always zap his memory. That's what we'll have to do to the others who say no. Not that I believe they'll say no, of course," he quickly added, seeing her frown of disapproval.

"Fine. Invite him."

Draco smirked, knowing he had won the battle. That half-smile quickly turned into a frown, however, knowing that if he added up the points, Hermione was definitely winning their little war.

---

It was almost the end of the school year and they were no closer to figuring out how to get rid of Voldemort than they were before. Neither was showing any worry although both knew that time was running short and that it was unlikely they would find anything at this point.

So, instead of searching through musty books every night, they spent their time in the Room of Requirement coming up with new hexes. After a week's night's worth of work, they had managed to create one that would cause a lot of internal bleeding and damage, but leave the victim unaware of any damage until they dropped dead. At first they weren't sure how they were going to test it, but the last day they entered the room, there were several cages of mice waiting for them. Draco marveled at the work of the Room of Requirement and demanded they have one installed in their castle.

"Our castle," Hermione replied?

"Er, yes." Draco face was flushed and Hermione could see his discomfort. "You see, I supposed that after we beat him we could... er... bollocks I'm starting to sound like a Gryffindor," he muttered.

"Watch it!" Hermione said.

"You're not a Gryffindor. I don't know how you fooled that bloody hat, but you're not. Zabini's are never anything but Slytherin. I'm sure you're a huge disappointment to your family, aren't you?"

"No, I'm sure I'm not. They don't even care that I still exist. And it wouldn't look good if a mudblood was sorted into a predominantly pureblooded house, would it? I'd have been eaten alive the second I stepped into the common room. You would probably have been first on the list to give me a sound beating."

"I'm shocked you would believe such a thing, Hermione," he drawled. "Had you told us and proven to us your true nature, we would have protected you as our own. Blaise might have had a little trouble accepting it, but he's a big boy and has always been mature..."

"He knows already."

"He knows?!"

"Yes. He found out mid-first year, if I remember correctly. We sense each other. The books say that it's just a normal part of being a twin. We ignore it mostly." Hermione was very aloof in her response, which surprised Draco. Something like this was astounding and very rare in wizarding society.

"TWINS?"

"Yes."

"And you're willing to let him go down with Voldemort?"

"Hey, I gave him a chance to switch sides. We could have been one of those brother and sister duos you hear about all the time. Like Donny and Marie, only evil overlords and minus the whole singing career..."

"Singing career? I can see it now, Granger. 'Dark Lord and Lady perform tonight! 50 Galleons a seat! Don't miss the wonderful duo!' You'd wear matching sequined outfits, both equally skimpy, of course," Draco retorted sarcastically.

"Muggle knowledge is becoming, Malfoy. You should prove you have something in that brain of yours more often."

"It's good to know your enemy," he defended.

"Does bad ol' Draco Malfoy have a soft spot for Muggles?" she prodded.

"NO! My father just made sure I had a basic knowledge of all things Muggle in case we were forced to go into hiding and had to live as Muggles for the briefest of periods."

"Mhmm, sure."

"What do you want me to say? That I have some fetish for fashions and music of the seventies?"

"Yes, I believe that something along those lines would be sufficient," she smiled.

"Well, you're to be disappointed. All families who follow Voldemort were smart enough to know that they might eventually be caught or sought after by the Ministry. We're not all egotistical bastards. And because of the "what ifs" in life, parents have always taught their children certain things about the Muggle world in case we had to prove knowledge of such things. Taking that Muggle Studies class Hogwarts offers helped some, too," he added.

"You know, Draco... there might be more to you than I originally thought."

"Glad you've finally come to terms with my greatness, Granger. It's sure taken you long enough. I was beginning to doubt that giant brain of yours actually works."