A Throne of Blood and Stars

Chapter Fifty

"Hermione, I swear if you take any longer..."

"Patience, Harold. Draco is fine, he won't be harmed."

They're in the third floor corridor, with a charm that alters the walker-by's memory and makes them turn around. Hermione's drawn a circle on the floor with chalk and set four candles around it with other ingredients along the line.

The only thing missing is Draco's artifact.

"You don't know that," Harry snaps. "He could already be hurt."

"You would have felt it," she says calmly, ignoring his hostility. "And you haven't, which means he's still in one piece. Have you tried the communication channel again?"

"He's in a warded space, the wall won't break. If I knew where he was, I wouldn't be here."

"I just need Blaise and Ron to come back with something of his, the spell is almost done."

"I don't know why I couldn't just go get a shirt of his."

"Because it's not that simple," Hermione explains, laying the necessary objects down around the summoning circle. "It needs to be something dear to his heart."

"Like what?"

Ron comes through the door, holds it open for Blaise, who's holding a small chest in his arms. "We're back."

"Why do you have that?"

"Because Draco is a cold-hearted fool with a secret fat heart and I didn't know what to bring so I brought several things," Blaise looks down at the chest, shrugging. "There's bound to be something in here that'll work."

Hermione walks to him and takes the chest to set it on the floor next to the circle of candles, opens it and digs through it. "It must be something that he holds dearly, something with a deep connection to him."

She pulls out a leather journal with a small dragon etched onto the cover and lifts it to Blaise. He winces. "That's the potion journal he received at his coming-of-age. It's a pure-blood tradition to gift the wizard a journal so he can make his own potions."

The Gryffindor girl purses her lips at it. "Not good enough."

"Wha--!" Blaise splutters, his eyes widening when she tosses it aside. "He's never let anyone near the book, he's set a Disillusionment spell on the damned thing!"

"Draco would have everything memorized," Harry says, agreeing with Hermione. "He may be protective about his own creations, but the journal itself isn't worth much."

Blaise frowns and walks to the journal, picking it up and holding it against his chest. Hermione digs through the box again and pulls out a silver ring of a coiled snake, the head of it pointing northward with green emeralds for eyes glinting in the firelight.

"What's this?"

"The only gift from his aunt."

"Bellatrix Lestrange?" Hermione makes a face. "Why would she have given him a gift?"

"No, not her. Pandora Lovegood."

"A story for another day," Hermione nods. She sets the ring on a small table. "But that's also not powerful enough."

She pulls out several things. Draco's shrunken broom, his first Potion's essay with an O, a tie that Blaise swears is sentimental but won't explain why, and a comb.

Hermione gives him a look.

"What," Blaise says defensively. "Have you seen the man's hair product collection? If anything is dear to him, it'll be that mop of corn hair on the top of his head."