Missed the previous installment? Here, but make it snappy.
Thank God, Christ, the Universe, and everything in between. It’s almost over! Six months of my life spent on this story. Six months I could have spent on other books. Maybe some good will come of it. I don’t want to dwell on the coulda-woulda-shouldas. I can’t. This is a time to celebrate.
What better way to celebrate foodie style than with a knickerbocker glory? I used the recipe from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, from which I also got a historical tidbit about this delightful tower of sugar. Originating in 1930s America, this parfait-like dessert found its stardom in England. As for the name itself, it may have come from striped knee breeches or the then-common nickname for New Yorkers.
You have layers of custard, whipped cream, Jell-O, toasted nuts, fruit, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup. Custard isn’t common here in the States, with the exception of flan. I made my own custard with the instructions from this BBC Food article, and let me tell you, it’s a hassle. Constantly stirring over medium heat, making sure the concoction doesn’t burn, the hazard of messing it all up if you turn up the heat too high… I probably would have been better off buying flan mix and leaving out the caramel topping. But that’s a consideration for another time.
I used blue raspberry Jell-O, which added a slight sourness that mingled nicely with the sweet cherry pie filling left over from another recipe. I went overboard with toasting the almond slivers, but the burnt taste added another layer of flavor to the whole mix. It’s as if all the flavors took turns on my taste buds, with the creaminess of the ice cream enveloping everything in a wonderful texture. As for the chocolate syrup, well, you usually can’t go wrong with that on any frozen dessert. Usually.
Let’s tuck in to some sugar-loaded goodness and try not to fall into diabetic shock as we finally get through the final chapter of Draco Dormiens.
Chapter 11: Of Magids and Mirrors
Last time, we saw the Weasleys cramming Lucius into the boot/trunk of the car while the others stand around a barely conscious and mortally wounded Draco. This is a good time as ever for Harry to place the sword against Draco’s prostrate form in a sign of good sportsmanship. Wizardship. Whatevership. Just don’t read into this and start shipping them.
Sirius informs the kids that they need to get back to Hogwarts soon. He’ll have to carry Draco to the car since the boy can’t walk. This has Hermione near tears once more, although you’d think Draco being this close to being snuffed out via nefarious jewelry would have had her bawling.
As Sirius picks up Draco, the sword drops from the boy’s weak grip. Harry picks it up and gives it to Sirius who almost immediately drops it. Before you go thinking that this is improv, Sirius hands the sword back to Harry and tells him to not let anyone hold it.
I’m going to assume that there’s some deep context that I missed from the original books because Harry getting emotional over Sirius being able to hold someone in his arms while handing over a sword is too silly to contemplate.
Never mind. Everyone’s in the car, Lucius probably doesn’t have enough air, and they’re sailing over the Bottomless Pit. Hermione is holding the Epicyclical Charm (let’s not worry how she got a hold of it) and musing. She has the idea to throw the pendant into the Bottomless Pit. Falling forever, it won’t be touched again, and Draco will be safe.
But Draco comes to briefly and quietly pleads with her to keep the charm. It doesn’t take much convincing, as Hermione pretty much rolls over for Draco by now.
Over the moors and through the air to castle Hogwarts we go. But this is The Draco Trilogy. We can’t just have characters going from point A to point B. We have to go through at least fifteen more letters before cycling back to point B. So what’s going to delay our heroes this time?
A) A relationship talk that somehow freezes all time
B) Voldemort flying right at the car like a demonic bat and knocking it out of the air
C) Lucius bursting out of the back seat from the boot/trunk and attacking
D) Random whomping tree
E) A second relationship talk that also seems to stop time
F) An airplane crashing into them
G) The car turning out to be a lemon and falling apart in mid-flight
H) Nothing, they get to Hogwarts just fine
If you guessed H, you still lose. Nobody wins when they read The Draco Trilogy.
Upon landing on the castle grounds, Sirius goes to get Dumbledore. The Weasley boys check on Lucius, giving us yet another opportunity for a Harry-Hermione-Draco moment. Hermione wants to ask Harry if he’s still upset with her, but it seems “somehow rude” to do that in front of the comatose Draco. She had no problem flirting with Draco in front of a conscious Harry, the very thing that seems to be on Harry’s mind as he gets out of the car to hang out with the Weasleys. True to form, Hermione is on the verge of tears and can’t figure out why Harry is mad with her.
Sirius returns with Dumbledore and Pomfrey, who magicks up a stretcher and carries Draco off. Hermione asks the headmaster if Pomfrey knows that Draco will be okay. Having just seen the boy for all but a few seconds, Dumbledore admits that he can’t tell for sure.
There are other matters to solve right now, though. He turns to the Weasleys.
So if Lucius regains consciousness and murders the boys in mid-flight, the adults who should have come for Lucius will at least have an idea of what happened. But considering that Harry had pretty much been allowed to face one of the most powerful wizards of all time on his own, this shouldn’t be any surprise.
Sometime later, we check in with Draco, who’s probably been loaded with enough Strengthening Draughts and Energy Potions to bolster a platoon. Pomfrey claims that “there’s no lasting damage,” but I’m sure she means physical damage. Wizards probably don’t believe in therapy.
With Draco stabilized, Dumbledore feels confident leaving him in the care of Madame Pomfrey, who I’m sure benefited from Dumbledore just standing over her shoulder and watching. He leaves with Harry to have the usual talk after a scrape but invites Hermione and Sirius to stay with Draco.
Hermione shows Sirius the Epicyclical Charm. She tells him that she was going to throw it into the Bottomless Pit. “Good thing you didn’t,” Sirius says, exercising admirable restraint when he adds, “If Lucius ever goes to trial, we’ll need that as evidence.”
Yes, Claremione, why didn’t you think of that instead of acting on desperation? Good thing Draco, a male, was there to halt your female impulsiveness.
As for the sword, Sirius shows Hermione the welt on his palm. If he had held on to it, he wouldn’t have a hand to show anymore. Only Harry and Draco can hold the sword without any damage, “[w]hich opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities,” Sirius muses aloud.
Like being the descendant of the man who had the sword crafted, maybe?
Sirius does have some sound advice to give Hermione: “Don’t be too hard on Harry. The people he’s really loved in his life, well, they tend to do. Makes him jumpy about expressing emotion.”
HERMIONE: But I’m in conflict over my emotions! Mine surpass his any day!
Draco stirs, sarcastically telling them to cut it out with the sincere talk and start taking care of him. What else are they going to do while he sleeps? Force feed him potions through a straw?
Hermione instantly gloms onto him, making his pain flare-up.
Nearly getting killed by a magical pendant, not so much.
Now that Draco is awake, Sirius decides to get Dumbledore. The man who left probably no more than five minutes ago. He’s probably still climbing the stairs to his tower office.
Surprisingly, he and Harry have been in his office all this time (I guess they used a Teleportation Charm or something). Harry has just finished wrapping up his side of events. The old headmaster is in deep thought, but in true Dumbledore fashion, he mentions a couple of minor details meant to wrap up the loose ends: Aurors putting Memory Charms on Muggles who saw wizards falling out of the sky because of Hermione’s Whirlwind Charm (really, does she put any thought into her actions in fanfics?), and the mandatory vanishing of Voldemort so he can resurface in another story.
Speaking of Voldemort, Dumbledore admits ignorance in believing that he was the only descendant of Salazar Slytherin. “Certainly there are some descendants of his still living. None with a really significant concentration of Slytherin blood, though. Or so I thought. It’s rather like you, having Gryffindor blood—”
*yawn* Wow, what a surprising new development.
Checking in on the Weasley boys, we find a still petrified Lucius free from the trunk (sorry, I keep hearing the word boot in my Southern accent, it’s distracting) and being magically forced up the stairs to the Magical Law Enforcement building. Fred and George, obviously the favorite Weasleys, are doing this task, while Ron is waiting with the car. A group of wizards, including Mad-Eye Moody and a mysterious hooded figure, meet them at the top of the stairs.
After the boys go through a list of offenses Lucius has committed (including being a wanker), the wizards ask for witnesses. This confounds the Weasleys, who probably operate under the belief that if you say bad things about somebody perceived to be bad, then it stands in a court of law.
Moody explains that although they’ve known for years that Lucius is “a bad lot,” they still need someone to testify against him. They won’t accept the Weasleys as witnesses, and Sirius is definitely out of the question. Not even Harry, a Parseltongue speaker and a trouble magnet, is considered reliable.
The hooded witch says she will testify. She lifts her hood, revealing herself to be Narcissa. So dramatic. It’s not like she could have simply approached the wizards with the offer to testify against her husband. Clare needed to include one more surprise for the easily surprised among her fans.
Anyway, she agrees to testify against Lucius on the condition that he not be sent to Azkaban but to the criminally insane ward in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies. While Narcissa “would be happy to see him Azkaban for life,” she can’t have Draco worrying about his father’s wellbeing.
This is pretty common in people who’ve been in abusive relationships. A part of them may want to hate—and indeed may hate—their abusers, but despite the terror and pain, there may also be a spark of unconditional love still alive in their hearts. Perhaps even the hope that their abusers can become better people. So… kudos to Clare for illustrating this. Hey, I can be decent at times.
Obeying Narcissa’s wishes, the wizards agree and take Lucius away “presumably to a holding cell of some sort,” as opposed to a playpen where he’ll get to sniff his surroundings and get to know the other felons.
Narcissa thanks the boys for their work and asks them to deliver a letter she wrote to her son. She kisses each of them on the cheek as thanks for all they did. Ron, I’m sure, is watching from the car and wondering why the universe has decided to kick him again.
In the clinic, Harry, Dumbledore, and Sirius interrupt a conversation (surprisingly not a makeout session) between Hermione and Draco. Harry has brought the sword of Salazar with him, which will be the focal point of this page-devouring section.
Dumbledore asks the boys if either of them knows what a Magid is. They look at him as if demanding to know why he’s giving them a pop quiz after their harrowing adventure.
A glimmer of the true Hermione shows through. She explains that a Magid is a “rare kind of wizard, born with special talents.”. Dumbledore adds that a Magid “can perform magic without the use of a wand, can resist many curses and hexes, and can survive spells that would easily kill any other wizard.”
It’s no “Harry—yer a wizard,” but it’ll do for this story’s big reveal.
(If you’re wondering if Sirius is a Magid since he used that “wake up” spell without a wand on Hermione in the dungeon, you’re wrong.)
Color me surprised, too, considering Draco is the designated hero of this trilogy. But he’s in luck since Dumbledore has determined that Draco is also a Magid, “a far more powerful one than Harry.” This was why Voldemort wanted to destroy Harry as a baby because only a Magid can destroy another Magid.
Draco asks why Voldemort didn’t try to kill him as an infant.
Of course, he had no problem with the idea of burning out Draco’s eyes and causing him possible irreparable harm with curses.
As for the sword, only a Magic can touch it, and Epicyclical Charm itself allowed Lucius to draw some of Draco’s powers for himself, making him a more powerful wizard.
And if you’re wondering about the Polyjuice Potion’s role in all this, I’m surprised you still remember it at this point. But, yes, Draco’s Magid powers made the Polyjuice Potion last longer than usual “because [he] caused it to.” As the famous do-gooder, Draco could live out a subconscious desire to practice the do-gooder qualities that he’d stifled in himself. And this means that Harry was correct in that Draco did do something to the potion and was therefore justified in clobbering him back in the first chapter.
(*sigh* No, he wasn’t, but I’m salty right now, so let me pour a damn shaker all over this bitch.)
But while Magids are born, their extreme powers don’t blossom through some pubertal stage. It can take “various stimuli” like emotions and danger to make them surface.
This info dump is fun and all, but we must let Draco rest. As Harry leaves with Dumbledore, he asks the headmaster if his Magid blood comes from Godric Gryffindor.
*sniiiiff* I smell a direct quote.
If you’ll bear with me, I’m going to provide a brief etymological lesson here. Magid is indeed a real word, but it has nothing to do with magic. Much as I’m loathe to, I’ll be cribbing from the Wikipedia article because it’s the most concise collection of information I can find. The more common spelling is maggid, and the more common definition is “an itinerant Jewish preacher.” It can also refer to a celestial entity in Jewish mysticism, such as an angel who speaks through kabbalists.
Seeing how mage is derived from the word magus, which is another word for a wizard, I can see where Clare may have gotten the idea to use magid for her super wizards. (Interestingly, magus also refers to a member of a priestly caste in ancient Persia or one of the wise men mentioned in the Bible.)
Okay, back to the claptrap—oh, hell, no. Hermione and Harry are walking back to Gryffindor Tower together, so you know what this means…
Get her, Harry, get her good! In fact, I’m going to post this verbal take-down because it’s so damn satisfying. Never mind the fact that Hermione keeps bringing this shit up is because Clare didn’t stop until now. Harry’s got a spine and he’s gonna whip Hermione with it.
Naturally, Hermione storms off to the girls’ dormitory, stopping long enough to argue with Ron that he’s wrong about Draco because that’s another conversation we need to rerun.
In the clinic, Pomfrey is taking care of Draco’s minor scrapes when she reaches the gouge in his palm. You think she would have spotted that first, but this is “give ’em a potion and wait” professional we’re talking about.
Draco is adamant that she leaves the cut alone. Rather than argue with the teenager who thinks he knows what’s best for his health, she obliges. Draco observes the cut, noting that Harry’s slicing had left a mark that “looked a little like a bolt of lightning.” It’s meaningful or whatever.
Back to Hermione. We find her sitting on her bed, dressed in pyjamas, (which sorely looks out of place among the other American spellings) dishing to the rapt Lavender and Parvati. She’s honest in that she doesn’t know if she’s going out with Draco, but definitely not with Harry. No longer being on speaking terms does tend to quash any chances of romance.
This means that Harry is now on the market. And with the Yule Ball and Seventh Years’ Dance coming up (just go with it, just go with anything at this point), plenty of girls will be baiting their hooks for a chance to catch the one fish in the sea they’ve had their eyes on since First Year.
Hermione is dumbfounded. It seems that hanging around a couple of boys during your formative years has the effect of obstructing a girl’s knowledge of how her own gender tends to act. Lavender patiently explains that all the girls (and maybe a few boys, let’s be honest) had stayed away from Harry because “we knew you liked him and we thought he liked you.” I don’t see how that would have stopped the more determined girls, but I’ll accept it. The long and short of it is that Hermione screwed up. It’s just that she needed another reminder.
Rumors fly faster than Snitches in Hogwarts, and it’s made Hermione uncomfortable to sit at her own house’s table in the Great Hall. So she sits with Draco at the Slytherin table, earning even more gawks and whispers from curious onlookers.
Draco is thankful for the rumor hill as it got Pansy Parkinson off his back for good. As he reads The Daily Prophet, he spots an article about his father on the front page. Fortunately, the letter from his mother had given him a heads up (you thought it disappeared along with Harry’s knife, huh?), but it doesn’t quite lessen the blow of having his father—his evil, murderous, two-faced father—in legal trouble.
Hermione is getting tired of the stares, so Draco invites her to take a walk with him.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Oh, God, it hurts to even fake laugh. And if you’re suffering because the scrollbar looks so far away from the bottom end, trust me, I suffered way more than you.
By the lake, Draco does some magic at a tree trunk and creates a black rose from the ground.
DRACO: You wouldn’t get it.
Draco has been busy practicing his Magid powers, growing black flowers and Venus flytraps, plus making black hail. As soon as Hermione says she likes the rose, Draco kisses her cheek. If you’re wondering about his scent now, it’s been upgraded to coffee, limes, pepper, and maple syrup.
Exercising some intelligence this time around, she pulls away. “I can’t,” she says.
Well, not self-possessed but definitely possessive.
Hemming and hawing as is her nature now, Hermione tells him that she doesn’t know what’s going on between Harry and herself. Then she asks for time because a young man fueled with hormones is certainly going to be patient. But Draco relents because of course he has to.
After this segment, Clare belabors the point by having Hermione notice that girls are “oozing all over Harry,” how even Moaning Myrtle is trying to make a move on him, how she keeps protesting that she and Draco aren’t dating, some girl talk about what could have drawn Hermione to Draco, nyeeeaaarrrggh.
Finally! Something different. Harry is trying to jump-start his Magid powers… despite having them already working earlier… okay, I don’t get this. He could hold the hand-removing Slytherin sword, he damn near killed off Voldemort when he was a baby, what more needs to happen at this point?
In this sub-subplot that could have been included in the second book instead of tacked on like an afterthought for the first one, Harry is trying to get Ron to knock him off his broomstick because he thinks that’s the best way he can be scared into becoming a full-fledged Magid.
If you guessed that this is Harry’s way of coping with Hermione possibly, maybe, not really, but probably for sure dating Draco, you’re right. He claims that becoming a Magid is what he wants more than anything.
If you want to start a Wizards Going Their Own Way movement, Harry, this is your cue.
Goddammit, enough of this. It’s script time.
SCENE: GREAT HALL
HERMIONE: I’m still thinking about Harry while we’re eating breakfast.
DRACO: I’m thinking about visiting you over the summer.
HERMIONE: I’m watching Lavender feed Harry toast.
DRACO: I’m still talking.
HERMIONE: I’m jealous.
DRACO: “Meanwhile, I’ve dropped out of Hogwarts and become a hired assassin for the Ministry of Magic.” Guess what source that was lifted from.
HERMIONE: I’m distracted.
DRACO: I’m going to talk to Harry, but not before touching your cheek in a loving way despite our not being in a relationship.
SCENE: GRYFFINDOR COMMON ROOM
HARRY: I’m brooding alone.
DRACO: Here I am.
HARRY: Grr, hate.
DRACO: Talk to Hermione.
HARRY: No.
DRACO: She’s unhappy.
HARRY: She is?
DRACO: What do you think?
HARRY: Hold on, Sirius is supposed to contact me via fireplace magic.
SIRIUS: *appears in fireplace via magic* Hey.
HARRY: Yo.
DRACO: I’m here, too.
SIRIUS: I didn’t think you’d be here, too.
HARRY: Snide remark toward Draco.
DRACO: Insult back at Harry.
SIRIUS: Never mind. I’ll send an owl. *disappears*
HARRY: Get out of here, Draco.
DRACO: Fine. Talk to Hermione or… vague threat, I don’t know.
SCENE: GRYFFINDOR COMMON ROOM
HERMIONE: I’m sitting here while it’s raining outside. I wish I had my cat with me.
RON: I’m back from Quidditch practice, which was canceled because of rain.
HERMIONE: Where’s Harry?
RON: He ran off into the woods.
DRACO: I’m here now.
RON: It’s your fault Harry ran off. He’s been researching Magids and he’s trying to scare himself into super wizardhood.
HERMIONE: The logical conclusion is that he’s going to get himself zapped by lightning.
DRACO: Sarcastic remark.
HERMIONE: You’re not helping! *on the verge of tears* I must find Harry!
DRACO: I’ll go with you.
RON: I’ll stay here and accept my being downgraded from third wheel to fourth.
HERMIONE: *whimper, hysterics, sob*
DRACO: Calm down.
HERMIONE: My fault! All my fault!
HARRY: Hi. I found your cat meowing in a drainpipe.
CROOKSHANKS: Purr.
HARRY: He’s fat.
CROOKSHANKS: I’ll shed all over your robes as revenge for that remark.
DRACO: Let’s go inside.
CROOKSHANKS: Now that my purpose for this scene has been served, I’m scampering off.
HARRY: Hey, what’s glimmering behind this door that’s ajar?
*ahem* Okay, I think I’ve killed enough pages. We can resume with some kind of proper recap/reviewing style. But I’m not going to dwell on details that much.
Here’s the short of it: Harry has found the Mirror of Erised. If you’re not familiar with the first book or movie, this was an enchanted mirror that showed the viewer their greatest desire. For Harry in both the book and movie, it was his parents.
In this fanfic, it’s Hermione. Durr-hey.
Draco makes his exit, giving Harry the privacy he needs to confess his feelings (again) to Hermione, finally giving us the resolution we need.
HARRY: Well, yes. I suppose I should mention the mountains of pizzas and chocolates and fountains of butterbeer behind us in the reflection.
HERMIONE: It’s a tragedy there isn’t a spell to turn a library into a person.
Ah, but you know what happens. They kiss the kiss that begins their official coupledom. Fina-damn-ly. What an extra treat for Harry, too, as this motion initiates his full-time status as a Magid. Phoenix song plays in the air, blue snowflakes obscure everything around them, and baby owls fall from the ceiling. (I kinda wouldn’t mind the baby owls part…)
Somewhere in the darkest recesses of the internet, there’s a Hagrid/Hermione fanfic collecting digital dust. As disgusted as I am by this crack pairing, I find myself wanting to read that story instead.
Naturally, Hermione wants to talk to Draco. Harry does, too, but not for the reasons you’re thinking (unless you’d rather be reading a Harry/Draco slashfic). He lets Hermione get to Draco first but warns her not to decide that she’s in love with him after all. He doesn’t have to worry; we have two more volumes for more of that mess.
Using the Epicyclical Charm, Hermione tracks down Draco at the lake.
DRACO: Tcch. Yo, I guess.
HERMIONE: Why are you being like this?! *angry sobbing, rips out hair*
Draco can still feel whatever Harry is feeling, so he already sussed that the Harry/Hermione pairing was going to happen. Doesn’t hurt that her moaning Harry’s name back in the wardrobe gave a big clue.
He’s oddly accepting of this turn of events. But…
Did you expect any less? Although, if Draco can feel what Harry feels, especially while kissing… no, not that, geez. But if Harry felt anything, he doesn’t let on. Thank God, too, because that would have led to another fifty pages of yelling, angst, shunning, and groveling for forgiveness.
The next day, Hermione and Harry are enjoying their official relationship by having a picnic by the lake. It’s a sunny day in June. Harry is going to a special summer program for untrained Magids. All’s right with the world.
So Draco has to show up.
No, he isn’t having second thoughts about letting Hermione go. He has a letter from Sirius, which is addressed to both of them.
Harry figures out that’s what Sirius had wanted to tell him through the fireplace. With Sirius marrying Narcissa his adopting Harry, that means Harry and Draco will be brothers.
This makes Hermione erupt into peals of laughter. Then Draco starts laughing. Harry resists, but gives in.
*whew*
Prep Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Cleanup
