Hex Me or Kiss Me Book One

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May 10

Harry emerged from the staircase, looking around for Hermione. He wanted to start working on how to get the serpent off Draco's arm immediately. He saw her sitting at a table and crossed the room to her, dragging Draco along with him.

Draco allowed himself to be led over to Hermione. He wasn't resisting, but he was secretly amused by the display Harry was putting on. He noticed that some of the Gryffindors were amused too. Others were not.

Harry ignored everyone in the room. He sat down at Hermione's table and pulled the chair out next to him for Draco to sit in.

She looked up at them, eyebrows raised. "Well, good morning," she said.

"Yeah, morning," Harry said impatiently. "Do you know anything about Draco's arm band? Have you figured anything else out?"

Hermione's eyebrows rose further. "Well, I haven't really been able to read up on too much, because all the books I read that even mentioned anything that might even be related to it led me straight to the Restricted Section. I'll have to get a note from a teacher."

Harry sighed. "I'll have to do that then. Draco, any thoughts about who might give us permission?" He was talking quickly. That morning he had been watching Draco sleep and staring at the serpent and had really realised how close it was to Draco's birthday. He had panicked a little when actually thinking about it.

Draco took the seat next to Harry and sat thinking about it for a moment. "Anyone you ask for permission will likely need to know why."

Harry sighed. "Well, what do we tell them? We certainly can't say that you're going to die if you don't kill someone. The only person who knows is Snape. Would he give us permission?"

Draco frowned, trying to reason through the changes in Snape's behaviour and the implications of the Unbreakable Vow. "I think he has some interest in keeping me alive," Draco said guardedly. "I can attempt to speak to him about it."

"Well, you should -- today, as soon as possible," Harry said quickly. "Hermione and I can go to the library and read up on stuff that may help us, and we'll be there when you get back. If Snape doesn't let you, then I'll use my bloody Invisibility Cloak to use the Restricted Section, although it would really, really help if we could look through books in the day time too, so try as hard as you can to get a note."

Hermione stared at him for a second. "Breathe, Harry, breathe," she said slowly.

Draco sat back with his arms crossed on his chest and listened to the two Gryffindors. "The odds of this place having anything on this kind of Dark Magic aren't very probable," he said.

Harry frowned heavily. "Well, then what do we do?" he asked. "Where could we possibly look other than the library?"

Draco cocked his head, looking at Hermione for a moment. "Well, I already looked through much of the library here. I could have missed something, but ...." He shrugged. "Do any of you have access to a pure-blood family library? The kind likely to have these kinds of books?"

Hermione stared at Draco disbelievingly for a moment. "You're asking me if I have access to a pure-blood library? Of course I don't. I'm Muggle-born."

Harry covered his face with his hands. "You know I don't have anything like that," he said through his fingers. "The only pure-bloods I talk to really besides you are Ron and Neville, and not even Ron anymore. The Weasleys probably wouldn't have anything on this anyway and neither would Neville's grandmother."

Draco huffed. "So how did you end up owning the Black family house-elf? Didn't you say you inherited the estate?"

Harry's hand flew off his face and his eyes widened. "Draco, you're a genius. I didn't think about that at all."