dragons_can_learn | A dubious reunion

A dubious reunion

Draco was a Malfoy, and one of the lessons he'd learned was to never tell anyone anything. Not even Hermione although he told her more than he told most people, and although Hermione knew his basic goals and plans she didn't know all the plans he had in store. And McGonnagal was unaware that Hermione was even involved.

"You ready, Hermione?" It was amazing how good she looked in his robes and he glanced appreciatively at her as he took the handful of flue powder. "Hogwarts Reception Room." One squeeze of her ass before he stepped into the flames.

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"The question is whether the stairs are a test." Draco shrugged. "Seeing whether people are sufficiently determined. Shall we give it a go?" Draco stood, waiting for Hermione.

Hermione finished her tea, before standing to take Draco's hand in hers. "It has been too long since I had the opportunity to just walk through the school. Let's just take our time?"

"Sure." Draco smiled. "And possibly we can show each other a few things." He frowned briefly, his tone turning sombre. "I hope the Room of Requirement recovered?"

"I don't know. Perhaps we could look for it, and find out?"

"Of course. Lead on." Draco smiled; unless Hogwarts was messing with them there probably weren't two people with a better grasp of where it was currently alive.

Hermione took her time walking through the hallways, memories of her time here flooding back to her. It was nice to see students chatting together as they headed to class. But there was a little bit of fear still in the air. As many of the students remembered the great battle that had been held here.

They finally got to the hallway where the Room of Requirement should be located.

"What do we want for the room to open as?"

Draco was probably more attuned to the slight fear in the air, and seeing the scars on the castle he'd helped make. And apparently the Weasley Twins' Swamp had either been moved or removed, but it was easy to get lost in memories. "I think what I want to find is old and lost books." It was an answer that served multiple purposes from the obvious (he wanted them) to something Hermione would like to something Hogwarts would like. And he doubted Hogwarts would disapprove of the scheming element.

"What a lovely idea." And it is easy for Hermione to picture in her mind.

"Ready?" They paced back and front in front of the door three times and Draco opened it to reveal a scorched room - with two small bookcases that were untouched full of books, some scorched, some water damaged; it took Draco a couple of seconds to notice that the entire left hand wall, floor to ceiling, was covered in old textbooks lost by students as well as there being useful books in the cases. "And sorry." That last was addressed to the room.

Hermione took a deep breath, taking Draco's hand in his. The scorched room seemed to be healing, at least. She carefully headed towards the left hand wall, her eyes scanning the textbooks carefully.

"I am sure the school knows that."

"Which doesn't mean you shouldn't say it." Malfoys were brought up both with good manners and training to not use them for the wrong people, which Draco was slowly getting rid of. "But if this is what the room wants to show, I wonder what's here." He stepped in, looking first at the book case.

"Maybe it wants us to find a certain book?" Hermione chuckled a little.

"The oldest editions of Hogwarts: A History?" Draco was mostly teasing there. But only mostly. "Because there are some secrets that won't be forgotten."

"I am not sure. Perhaps there is a book here from a previous Headmaster, that actually had the best intentions in mind for Hogwarts."

"I think most headmasters had the best intentions. Even Dumbledore. He just got old, distracted, and was trying to be both Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump at the same time." Draco shrugged. "You take the book case I'll take the wall?"

"Well I would like to take a little bit of the good each one did, so that we can have a few different ideas to implement." Hermione headed to the book case.

Draco nodded, heading to the pile of books and to the bottom left where he suspected the oldest would be. "Latin. Of course the oldest books would be in Latin. I'll have to read them later to see if the spells are still in faux-Latin or if they based their spells on something Greek or Celtic." But reluctantly he moved on, organising rather than getting lost in books.

Hermione reads through a few books herself, she is not necessarily looking for the oldest. She is just looking for valuable information. And because she is a bit of speed reader, she can absorb the information quickly.

Every now and then she takes a book out of the pile, and sets it into a different one, sorting what she feels might be useful for them.

[had some family problems to sort out. sorry for the delay]

Draco had something approaching a plan but was as much on a raid as anything. Ideal would be a copy of Hogwarts: A History, but he was looking for the earliest books he could get his hands on - and history books pre-Binns. But most of all he was very carefully moving the scrolls to try to find anything written at the time of the founding. Carefully so as not to damage anything.

"Do you think some of these books should go to the library?"

"If they are in good condition, I think they should." Hermione flipped through another book, setting in back in the pile of not-necessary.

"Hogwarts wants us to learn from our past. All of us. Students and teachers alike."

Draco nodded. "And some should go in the restricted section or just be copied. I've some very old and fragile books here. But have you found something directly useful?"

"A few books that had some past traditions, that I thought would be nice to have returned. And a few books that detailed different Headmaster rules on the point system."

"It would be good to ensure that the House points were used effectively..."

Hermione paused for a moment. "What did you think of Minerva's idea of not using the Sorting ceremony in the first year?"

Draco nodded. "Anything interesting in the points system? And it depends how the hat actually works. Whether the house system has always been flawed or whether it's that there's been a broken house. You?"

"Well, this one book has a nice list of what students could earn or lose points for. I think if it was posted in a common place, everyone would know. And it would prevent teachers from randomly awarding points, or taking away points, just because of their mood. There is also a nice little write-up about how for anything above 20 points, it needs more than one teacher to agree to." Hermione held out the book in question. It looked older than some of the others in her pile.

"Perhaps we should do some diagnostic tests on the hat. Make sure that it is not corrupted or flawed. I know that the hat takes into account what the student wants for themselves... I was almost a hatstall myself." Hermione taps her foot for a moment. "But I sort of agree that at age 11, no student truly knows who they want to be."

"I think that the first years should have common classes. Perhaps classes to learn about the different houses? Give them a chance to make friends, who are friends no matter how they get sorted later."

"Clear rules are always good. Even if brats like me can work out where they can be exploited. And you really should have been a hatstall with Slytherin involved."

Draco shrugged, reaching for another really old scroll. "Do students know better at twelve than eleven. Or do they simply have more opportunity to have had bad experiences with people?"

Suddenly he dropped it, shaking his hand. "Trapped!"

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