✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

43 | QUERENCIA

QUERENCIA
(n.) a place from which one's strength is drawn, where one feels at home; the place where you are your most authentic self

TESSA'S HEAD HAD LOLLED TO THE SIDE AS SLEEP OVERCAME HER — ONLY TO WAKE UP IN ALARM BY HERMIONE'S INDIGNANT CRY. "You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!"

Tessa jolted upright, wildly looking around before remembering she was in Charms class. They were supposed to be practicing the Banishing Charm for today's lesson, but she was too tired from staying up until dawn with Draco last night that she could barely open her eyes.

"Keep your voice down!" Harry hissed to her. "I just need to — sort of fine-tune it, all right? Just forget the egg for a minute, I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody . . . " he delved back into whispering about everything that happened with Snape, Moody, and Filch where Harry had almost been caught by the Potions professor.

"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered. "What . . . d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," Harry replied. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something . . . "

"What? Harry . . . maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"

Tessa used the end of her wand to point lightly at Ron. "You might actually be right, you know."

"Oh you two," Hermione said in a chastising voice, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"

Ron shrugged as Tessa mumbled, "Never hurts to make a guess."

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit — "

"Cruel?" Tessa offered.

"Evil?" Ron joined in and sharing a high-five with Tessa behind their backs. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"

"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" Hermione asked, ignoring Ron and Tessa. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"

"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," Ron muttered.

"You just want to think Snape's up to something," Hermione countered.

"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one," Harry mumbled.

     Tessa grunted under her breath, "Curiosity killed the cat."

     Throughout the next few days, the four continued to search for charms and solutions that would help Harry go underwater.

     "Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something," Hermione said. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing . . . "

     "Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head," Harry mumbled. "I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody; he might do it for me . . . "