Hermione read through the newspaper at Gryffindor table the next morning while she and Ron waited for Harry to arrive. There were more photos of Harry on the front page - still from the night he'd returned to the castle, clad in silver armor and looking like something out of a fairy tale. Ron hadn't said anything that night, but Hermione knew there was some bit of envy burning inside him. Oh, he didn't want the danger, or the responsibility, and he certainly didn't envy the sheer terror that must haunt Harry constantly. But every boy in the school wanted a chance to step into the spotlight that perpetually shone on Harry. Ironically the one person, who didn't seem to want it, was Harry himself.
But she'd been very proud of Ron that night. He hadn't missed a beat when he'd been questioned by the Minister; he'd backed Harry up without question. And earlier that night when the two of them, along with Ginny, had been questioned by practically everyone, Ron had stuck to the script Dumbledore had given them, happily leading them all around by the nose.
It had been Ron who had reasoned out that Dumbledore did not want the Ministry knowing where Harry had been taken simply because he believed that the Minister would bungle things and get Harry killed. Faced with Ron's absolute certainty of Dumbledore's plan, Hermione and Ginny had just followed his lead and answered everyone's questions with the most vague and baffling ideas they could think of. Had it not been for the constant worry for Harry eating away at the pit of her stomach, Hermione might have actually enjoyed the experience.
"Think he'd let me try on the armor?" Ron asked quietly as he looked over Hermione's shoulder at the photo of Harry on the paper.
"I'm sure he would," Hermione replied. "It would probably fit you better too. You're much taller and broader in the shoulder than Harry is."
Ron sat up straighter at that, seeming puffed up by the compliment. He grinned at her and Hermione could see that for a moment at least, all was right with his world. She had to admit - there were times when Ron Weasley simply melted her heart with his honest emotional responses.
She could tell by the buzz of whispers that moved through the Hall that Harry had entered. A moment later he sat down across from the two of them, smiling at both, and Hermione thought he looked better rested today. She knew he was likely still worried about Sirius and Remus - and with good cause too. And she knew that last night they had hidden Remus away to protect him from the Ministry. But still he seemed in better spirits than he had yesterday.
"Everything go okay last night?" Ron asked him quietly.
Harry nodded. "I'll tell you guys about it later. Have you come up with any ideas?"
Hermione knew he was asking if either of them had thought of a way to get Sirius out of the marriage to Malfoy. They had kicked around several ideas yesterday - including using the Marriage Stone on one of them, either Draco or Sirius. But unfortunately they didn't know what sorts of legal ramifications that would have - Hermione had insisted that they needed to get a copy of the Black family Conscriptus before making any decisions.
"Not yet," she confessed. "We need to see the Conscriptus first."
He frowned but began filling his plate, nodding toward the paper Hermione still held in her hands. "What about the paper today? Anything I should be worried about?"
"Just more of the same," Hermione replied. "The Wizengamot has demanded a full inquiry into the Winter Lands issue - they want to find out why the requests for aid were ignored, or lost, or rewritten. And there's a lot of controversy over the Wizarding Registration Act. Things are pretty chaotic right now at the Ministry. I suspect a lot of people are going to lose their jobs over this - Fudge isn't the only one in trouble."
"What is this Registration Act?" Harry asked as he buttered a piece of toast. "It was mentioned in the paper yesterday as well."
"A bad idea all around," Ron remarked looking rather disgusted. Hermione knew Ron didn't pay much attention to politics, but even he had followed the progress of this, largely due to his father. Normally Arthur Weasley was fond of all things Muggle, and the fact that he was so opposed to this had caught his son's attention.
"The Muggle government is trying to get all Wizards and Witches to register with their census bureau," Hermione explained to Harry.
"Voluntarily?" Harry questioned.
Hermione shook her head as she folded up her paper and set it aside. Like the majority of the populace she didn't think this was a good idea either. "No, they want to make it mandatory."
"What for?" Harry pressed, looking confused. "It doesn't make much sense. I mean they don't even know about the six unplottable counties. Why would they need to know about the people living in them?"
"Taxes," Hermione said simply and seeing the confused look on Harry's face she pushed on to explain. "They say it's just for a census, but the reality is, they want to be able to tax the Wizards and Witches living in Britain."
"Why would the Wizarding world pay taxes to the Muggle government? We don't use their public services - the hospitals, their police, their transportation. How could they justify taxing people for a service they have no use for?"
"They don't have to justify it," Hermione shrugged. "Frankly they don't care. They just like the idea of getting more money. Needless to say it's causing controversy all over the Wizarding world. The biggest fear is the secrecy clause - people want to know how the Wizarding world is going to remain secret from the Muggles if records are being taken. The government keeps trying to assure everyone that they've taken all that into account, but it seems a foolish risk. Sooner or later some accountant or committee is going to look at the records and wonder who all these people, who don't seem to exist anywhere else, really are."
Harry shook his head as he pushed his eggs around on his plate. "Well, from what I've heard the Muggle government doesn't have much chance of forcing anything on the Wizarding world," Harry replied. "Why is it even an issue? Why not just tell them to go mind their own business?"
There were a few other people listening in on the conversation and they all gave a cheer at Harry's statement. Harry grinned briefly at them, but turned his attention back to Hermione.
"That's the problem," Hermione replied. "For some reason the Ministry of Magic wants to agree to the Act. That's where the controversy is coming from."
"How much support does this Act have?" Harry frowned.
"None," Hermione shrugged. "The majority of the Wizarding world is against it. This is one place where everyone is united against Muggles. It's a bad idea all around."
"When you say majority how many do you mean? Fifty-one percent, sixty percent?"
"Try closer to ninety-five percent," Hermione corrected.
Harry's eyes widened at that. "You mean to tell me that nearly EVERYONE in the Wizarding world is against this, but the Ministry is still planning on going ahead with it? How is that even possible?"
"That's one of the main issues in the election, Harry," Hermione informed him. "Fudge is one of the main people pushing for this - he's been trying to convince everyone it will be a good idea. He's got a lot of people backing him as well - there's talk of corruption. That they're getting money from the Muggle government for agreeing to this. It's part of the reason why this whole thing with the Winter Lands is so unsettling. People are losing faith in the Ministry."
Hermione saw that her words had worried Harry, his eyes darkening as his thoughts turned inward. She could only imagine what sort of pressure he must be under. For the most part he had made a point of ignoring the insanity of the upcoming election, refusing to back any candidate. But now more than ever he had been thrust into the center of the political storm - and after seeing him the other night dealing directly with the Minister of Magic, Hermione suspected he was finally beginning to realize just what sort of power he had - not simply magical power, but the power to literally change the shape of their future.
Their talk then turned to different things as the other boys changed the subject to topics more interesting to them - namely Quidditch. But Harry remained quiet. He turned when he spied Snape entering the Great Hall for morning breakfast, glancing briefly at the man and smiling. Hermione glanced toward the head table, watching curiously as the Potions Master returned Harry's smile with a nod of his head. Like Harry the man attracted a lot of attention when he entered, and Hermione heard the giggling start once more. Hufflepuffs this time - a group of girls near the head table where actually batting their eyes at the Potions Master. Snape glared at them with a look that could melt steel.
Hermione looked curiously over at Harry, noticing the frown on his face as he watched the exchange between Snape and the Hufflepuffs. Her friend looked both irritated and confused by the giggling - as if he were not entirely certain why he was so bothered by it. Hermione recognized the look - she used to glare at Lavender Brown the same way every time the girl had flirted with Ron. Eventually of course Hermione had figured out that she'd been jealous. She couldn't help but wonder if perhaps Harry was experiencing something similar. She knew he was growing fond of Snape, but perhaps there was something more there as well. The truth was, Harry had always been a bit behind everyone else when it came to emotions. So many things that everyone else took for granted confused him. She remembered the bewildered look on his face the first time she had ever hugged him. It had been as if he hadn't understood why anyone would do such a thing to him.
A quick glance back at Snape revealed an angry, irritated man who didn't seem to understand why a group of girls were batting their eyelashes at him. Hermione had to stifle a chuckle. Between Harry and Snape, it was like the blind leading the blind.
The surprised whispering of a group of Ravenclaws caught Hermione's attention and she turned toward them, noting their attention caught by someone just now entering through the main doors. Glancing around she saw Draco Malfoy entering, walking with an annoyingly arrogant swagger.
And then she spied the thing hanging around his neck.
Hermione froze in shock, not certain she was actually seeing what her eyes were telling her. Draco Malfoy was wearing a medallion of Dragon gold around his neck. Red Dragon gold! The sheer improbability of the situation left her floundering for an appropriate reaction. But there was no mistaking the item - red Dragon gold. He wore it proudly, showing it off like a prized possession.
A quick glance at the Ravenclaw table showed that all the students from fifth year on up were staring at Malfoy in disbelief, all of them obviously as bewildered as she was. Her head snapped around to look at the Hufflepuffs. There were only a handful of them who seemed to know the significance - a couple of older students sitting at the end of the table. They were watching in wide-eyed disbelief. A quick glance up and down Gryffindor table only revealed two seventh year students with any clue.
Turning to watch more closely, she saw Draco make his way toward Slytherin table. A quick glance at Slytherin table revealed a mixture of reactions. Several students were literally dumbfounded; many others, obviously clueless, were staring enviously at the gold Malfoy was displaying.
"Look at that prat," Ron grumbled as Draco strutted down the isle toward an empty seat near Pansy Parkinson. "Wonder if that's a bribe from his father? He's always showing off!"
Hermione, thinking that perhaps this was some sort of joke, turned to see what the teachers at the head table were making of all this. Snape, who'd been in the process of putting several slices of bacon on his plate, had frozen when he'd spotted Draco, one hand holding the platter of bacon still in the air. Dumbledore actually had a hand over his mouth, either holding back laughter or a gasp of shock; Hermione couldn't quite tell. The man's eyes were twinkling brightly, however, so she suspected it was mirth. McGonagall was holding a butter knife frozen in mid air, her own mouth opened in shock.
Then Hermione noticed the expression on Charlie Weasley's face and a strange suspicion stirred in her mind. Charlie, seated next to Hagrid while he was visiting in the castle, was gazing hard down at his plate as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world. He was attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to hide a smirk.
Across the hall at Slytherin table, Draco had sat down, seeming oblivious to the disturbance he was causing. He ignored the dumbfounded Slytherins entirely and turned toward Pansy and Blaise to preen. Both of his friends were gazing rather enviously at the gold around his neck. When Pansy reached out to touch the gold, Draco slapped her hand away, warning her off. Though Hermione couldn't hear what he was saying, she could see that he was bragging to them about something.
She noticed then that he had a rather familiar yellow book in his hands, and after a moment he opened it up and began leafing through it. It was their Care of Magical Creatures textbook from last year.
"Something wrong, Hermione?" Harry finally asked, having noticed the odd expression on her face. He glanced at the head table as he asked, and frowned deeply when he noticed that Snape was still holding the platter of bacon frozen in the air.
"Oh, come on, Hermione," Ron grumbled. "It's just a stupid bauble. Don't tell me you're impressed?"
"It's red Dragon gold," she said simply.
"So?" Ron demanded. Harry was still frowning at the teachers, his gaze moving to McGonagall now.
"Dragon gold," she repeated. "Red Dragon gold." Ron shrugged cluelessly, and Harry turned his bewildered gaze on her. She shook her head in frustration. "Am I the only one who reads the appendixes in our books?"
"Our books have appendixes?" Ron asked.
Hermione huffed in frustration and looked back at the Ravenclaws - at least they had done the required reading. Even the fifth years, who were using the book this year, appeared to know the significance of red Dragon gold. A quick glance at the head table revealed that none of the teachers had moved - still watching the oblivious Malfoy in stunned silence. She wondered who was going to break first. Apparently no one knew how to react, the sheer unlikelihood of the situation catching them all off guard.
Draco was reading now, Hermione noticed. He had the book open to the back - no doubt reading the very appendix she'd just referred to. He grew still as he read, and the smug look began draining away from his face, leaving him pale. He read onward, and as his eyes moved down the page, the paleness began to give way to redness, his cheeks flushing with heat. His eyes grew wide, his hand reaching upward to clutch suddenly at the chain around his neck, yanking at it. And upon realizing that it was not going to break he seemed to explode. From one instant to the next he went from utter silence to blind, raging fury.
Hermione watched in shock as Draco Malfoy leaped to his feet and turned in rage toward the head table. "I'll kill you!" he shouted, grabbing the yellow book and flinging it blindly at the head table. "I'll kill you! You bastard! I'll kill you!" His voice rose to deafening levels, reverberating off the high ceiling and he began flinging anything his hands came into contact with at the head table. Plates, platters, goblets of pumpkin juice, food - students were diving out of the way in panic for his aim was not aided by his mindless wrath. When he began flinging silverware - and there were a lot of very sharp daggers on the Slytherin table - the teachers leaped into action and slapped up shields to protect themselves and the students from the Slytherin's fit of temper.
It took Hermione only a moment to realize that Draco was attempting to hit Charlie Weasley. All his rage was directed directly at Charlie who was watching the proceedings almost gleefully.
"He's gone mad!" Ron exclaimed in shock as he dodged a flying plate. The teachers' shield was deflecting many items, and they were flying around the room. Several older students threw up their own shields with various degrees of success.
Students scrambled out of the way, diving under the tables as Draco scrambled for more ammunition, actually climbing up onto the Slytherin table so that he could reach the daggers and plates further down. For a moment there was utter pandemonium, and Draco was too caught up in his rage to even be aware of the fact that everything he was flinging at Charlie was bouncing off the shield and missing his intended target. And then Draco seemed to remember that he was a wizard and yanked out his wand, pointing it in the general direction of the head table. But at that point he was so far gone in his rage, the only spell he apparently remembered was Incendio. He hit the teachers' shield with blast after blast of ineffectual fire - all neatly extinguished by Dumbledore
It was at that point that Charlie stood up, drew his own wand and hit Draco with a very strong stunning hex. The hex struck Draco dead center and he collapsed unmoving onto the tabletop. For a moment there was dead silence in the room.
"Sorry about that," Charlie announced as if he had been the one who had caused this disruption in the first place. He got up and made his way swiftly around the table, heading toward the unconscious Slytherin. Everyone in the room watched in utter silence as he grabbed the blond boy and slung him over his shoulder. "I'll just take him down to the infirmary and make certain he's alright," he announced with a grin to the head table. "Dragons can be so unpredictable outside their natural habitat."
Amongst the destruction of the Great Hall students began poking their heads out from under the tables to watch Charlie's progress. When Charlie passed by Gryffindor table, Ron stood up hesitantly. "Charlie? What's going on?" He looked as baffled as everyone else.
Charlie just grinned at him. "Oh, let's just say I've ended the Malfoy-Weasley family feud." It was then Hermione noticed the piece of yellow Dragon gold hanging around Charlie's neck - a medallion that had been broken in two. Charlie disappeared through the Hall doors.
As one the students turned toward the head table to see what the teachers thought of all this. Dumbledore, Hermione noticed, was still trying valiantly not to laugh. "Professor Flitwick," he mussed. "Perhaps you and the prefects would straighten out the Great Hall while I go check on Mr. Malfoy with Professors Snape and McGonagall?"
"Yes, of course," Flitwick agreed. "My goodness! I haven't seen the like since Sirius Black charmed the ceiling to rain toads!"
While McGonagall and Snape followed Dumbledore out of the room, Professor Flitwick began setting the room to rights with a flick of his wand. Hermione cast several cleaning charms at Gryffindor table. A lot of the flying food had splattered them.
"I take it there's some significance to the red Dragon gold?" Harry asked Hermione as he and Ron resettled the bench that had been knocked over when they had all dived under the table.
Hermione nodded. "Only Dragons wear red Dragon gold," she explained.
"Obviously not, if Malfoy was wearing it," Harry replied.
"You don't understand," Hermione could barely believe it herself. "Dragon Tamers keep pieces of Dragon gold. They use it to tame Dragons." Neville and Seamus leaned toward them, listening intently as she continued. "When they tame a Dragon they give it a piece of the gold - it turns red when they have the Dragon under their thrall. It's part of a magical ritual. There's an exchange of blood and the Dragon becomes the property of the Dragon Tamer. It's a magical bond."
"So you're saying that Malfoy stole this gold from one of Charlie's Dragons?" Ron guessed. "And he's angry because. . .is there a curse or something on it?"
"No, Ron," Hermione shook her head. "You can't steal red Dragon gold - the collar doesn't come off unless the Dragon Tamer takes it off. The only way for Draco to have red Dragon gold is if he IS the Dragon."
"Draco Malfoy is a Dragon?" Harry asked, looking utterly confused.
"Right," Hermione agreed.
Ron and Harry exchanged looks with the other Gryffindors who were listening. "Draco Malfoy is a pureblood Wizard, Hermione," Ron said slowly as if trying to explain something very complex to a small child.
Hermione glared at him in irritation. "You are missing the point. Look, before there were Wizards older Dragons would use Dragon gold to control younger Dragons. An old powerful Dragon would bond a large clan of younger Dragons to him. When Wizards came along they discovered they could use the Dragon gold the same way - they could control the Dragons to an extent using a similar ritual. But then they discovered that it was possible to use this same ritual to bond two people, but it's very rarely done - because the person who receives the piece of red Dragon gold, is still considered a Dragon." She paused to see if they understood. "Legally, they're a Dragon," she clarified. "Draco Malfoy is no longer legally a Wizard. He's a Dragon. An animal."
"He's going to turn into a Dragon?" Ron asked uncertainly.
"No!" Hermione stamped her foot in frustration. "He's not going to turn into a Dragon. He's still a human. He's just not legally a human any more. For whatever reasons he's given up his rights as a Wizard."
Harry, along with the others, looked stunned, but Ron began giggling uncontrollably. His giggles quickly turned into full-blown laughter. "Are you saying my brother tricked a Malfoy into become an animal?"
"Well, apparently," Hermione shrugged. "Though I don't know how that works. As far as I know the ritual requires full consent to work properly." The other Gryffindors listening in began snickering then, joining Ron in his hilarious enjoyment of the Slytherin's predicament.
Hermione shook her head and glanced at Harry, who looked more confused than amused. "If nothing else, this solves Sirius' problem," she told him quietly.
"What?" Harry looked up instantly.
"Well, I haven't seen the Black family Conscriptus yet," Hermione admitted. "But I can pretty much guarantee that there is no way it would ever allow a non-human to marry into the Black family bloodline."
Harry smiled. A moment later he started chuckling, then laughing. Hermione just sighed and sat back down to wait for both Ron and Harry to regain control of themselves.