Triumph Out of the Bitter Taste of Ashes

AN: I have no idea of the layout of Hogwarts, but in my mind\'s eye, I see the front door opening into a grand entry hall. Immediately off the the left and right are hallways -- one of which I picture leading to the Headmaster\'s office. Just a little further up this hall I picture the entrance to the Great Hall on one side and the Library on the other. The rest of the castle hasn\'t got that kind of consideration from me, but this part has been inescapable from nearly the beginning. Hope my layout doesn\'t conflict too badly with anyone elses view.

Secondly, I\'m not sure if it\'s every revealed in the books, but for the purposes of this story, I\'m going to assume that winter break starts around December 20th.


Deb, Shemham, WendyNat, Zephyr -- Thanks! Wendy, yeah, I love that line too. onalonally I think Albus isn\'t as nice as he may seem. I don\'t doubt he\'s \'on the side of good\', I just don\'t think he\'s a man I\'d *really* want manipulating my future. I\'d never be sure what he did was in *my* best interests. Shemham, I don\'t know, but that\'s a good question.

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Chapter Eight
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Draco made his way pensively from the Great Hall toward the library. He didn\'t really want to do this project, wanted absolutely nothing to do with it in fact. Spending Saturday, even if it wasn\'t a Hogsmeade weekend, researching in the library wasn\'t exactly his idea of fun -- especially the last Saturday before winter break.

Unfortunately, he didn\'t have any choice in the matter. Professor Snape expected progress, and he and Ron had already successfully procrastinated three days of their allowed week away. Last night, they\'d finally agreed they needed to buckle down, and that they\'d spend this morning at least organizing their project and how, exactly, they were going to go about it. They needed, if nothing else, to at least figure out where they needed to look to find the bloody data.

He already knew where to find some of it, of course. The ministry of magic had a hall of births, where all births to magical parents were recorded the moment the child was born; it didn\'t even matter if the child was alive or not at the time of birth. He knew that from personal experience, his stillborn sister was registered there. They just had to have had at least one magical parent.

They could find the muggleborn students in the archives of the school registry lists. Those would also tell them which of the wizarding births had been born with power -- of course, also letting them know which ones were squibs simply by their name not being listed for any of the schools. Even if a child never attended school, if they were born a witch or wizard, they appeared. Such was the magical world they lived in.

He had less than no clue where they\'d look to find out about muggle births, and finding the full names of the muggle-born students\' parents to research their ancestry was just as much a puzzle to him. He could only hope that Ron, with his father\'s strange interest in all things muggle, might know more about that end of their project.

If all else failed, maybe they could appeal to the older Weasley as a \'source\'. It was certainly better than nothing; though he never thought he\'d see the day he\'d be asking Arthur Weasley for anything. He\'d certainly had to listen to enough of his father\'s rants about the man\'s ineptitude in general. Now, though, he wondered how much of it was accurate.

Sighing as he reached the library and noticed that Ron was nowhere to be seen, Draco set his supplies on a table and sat, quickly writing down the information he\'d already thought of. By the time he\'d finished, Ron stomped in and dropped gracelessly into the chair across from him.

\"You\'re late,\" Draco said sharply.

\"I know,\" Ron replied shortly. \"What have you got so far?\"

\"Not much,\" he answered sourly, handing over the parchment he\'d been writing on.

Ron nodded and handed it back. \"There are several places to look for muggle births. One: a place called City Hall, apparently there\'s one for every town -- course it helps if you know what town they were born in. Two: a place called the Census Bureau. That\'s a group that keeps track of where all the muggles are living, how many kids they got living with him, who their family is, what kind of jobs they have, stuff like that. And then when we get to the point we need to track backward, there are all sorts of places that story historical documents like family histories and stuff. According to my father the most famous place is in America near some big lake -- a town called Spice River City, or some such. I\'ll ask him to be sure. He\'ll probably know where we can look for other countries too.\"

Draco nodded absently as he quickly copied down the places Ron mentioned. None of the names or places meant anything to him, but they would still be a reminder. When he was finished, he looked up. \"With that census thing you mentioned, it should be a lot easier than I thought to get the muggle information.\"

\"Only for the most recent part of our project, and only for those born in or now living in America. That Spice City place, that\'s for America too, though Dad says that some of the records go back to before they migrated there.\"

The two of them spent the next hour occupied by bouncing ideas off each other, and ended up with quite a bit of information compiled. Every once in a while, Ron would bounce up out of his seat and head into the stacks. He\'d come back with a book, Draco hadn\'t even realized was in the library, and instruct him to add it to their list of source information. Finally, the eighth time Ron did it, Draco threw down the quill and stared at the redhead when he returned.

\"What?\"

\"I just never really pictured you being much into research, but it looks to me like you really know this library,\" Draco said, absolutely mystified.

Ron shrugged, a crooked half-grin appearing -- though the expression didn\'t reach his eyes. \"Hermione was the research queen, really,\" he said, his voice subdued. \"It\'s just that Harry ended up in the hospital wing so much, I was usually the one stuck here helping. I got to be book gopher most of the time so I kinda learned my way around by the sheer repetition, looking for that book she *absolutely* had to have.\"

Draco nodded knowingly, smirking. \"Now *that* makes sense,\" he replied evenly, then continued, not sure he should. \"Didn\'t mean to bring up bad stuff.\"

Ron smiled at him, this time a touch of light reaching his eyes. \"You didn\'t. Good memories really. She was fun to twit when she was in serious research or study mode. Didn\'t take much to set her off on one of her tangents, you know? It\'s just-- Merlin, Draco! It hurts that she\'s not here.\"

Draco wasn\'t sure what to do or say. He\'d never liked Granger -- for obvious reasons and not so obvious reasons -- unfortunately Ron had. Draco frowned, searching. \"You two seemed really close,\" he finally ventured.

Ron nodded, his eyes watering.

**Oh, Merlin! Don\'t cry. We\'re in public for cryin out loud!** Draco shifted uneasily. He didn\'t like it when girls cried, let alone blokes. To his everlasting gratitude, Ron didn\'t cry. Instead, he took a deep breath and wiped his eyes angrily.

\"Sorry,\" he muttered. \"Hey, look,\" he continued, jumping up suddenly. \"I think we\'ve done enough for today. We can come back tomorrow and do more. We\'ll be able to at least start in on the few books here that will help us.\"

Draco didn\'t really agree, but he understood the guy\'s need to leave. He\'d almost *cried*. That had to be embarrassing. Sighing, he nodded. \"Same time?\" he asked, slowly gathering up their work.

Ron agreed hastily and beat a quick retreat. The redhead was out the door before Draco had finished putting everything in order. He hadn\'t even made it to the door when Ron came barreling back in.

\"Sorry, but I totally forgot to tell you. I let my folks know I needed to stay over winter break. They okayed all but the last two weeks.\"

Draco frowned. \"But we\'ll need that time to put the final touches on everything. That\'s the most important time of the whole project!\"

\"I know,\" Ron agreed. \"But--\"

\"Couldn\'t you owl them and get them to change it to a different two weeks? I mean, what does it matter *which* two weeks, as long as you spend two weeks with them?\"

\"I tried that already, believe me. Apparently, that\'s the only time both Bill and Charlie could get time off, and Mum and Dad want everyone home at the same time.\"

\"How the bloody hell are we supposed to finish our project if we\'re two separate places?\" Draco demanded angrily, his mind furiously trying to come up with a way to do it. He really didn\'t see them getting it completely finished a whole two weeks ahead of schedule, it would take the whole time alotted *and* it would take both of them. Professor Snape had not been exaggerating when he\'d said it was an \'ambitious\' project, in fact he\'d been underestimating it by quite a bit. Even if the git *didn\'t* consider it a master\'s thesis, it was close enough as to make no never mind.

\"We-ll,\" Ron began, dragging the word out.

\"What?\"

\"I thought of a way.\"

\"And?\"

\"You\'re not going to like it,\" Ron hedged.

Draco narrowed his eyes. \"What . Is . Your . Idea?\"

\"I asked, and,\" Ron said, finishing in a mumbled rush, squeezing his eyes shut, \"bothMumandDadsaiditwasokayifyoucamewithme.\"

Draco blinked. Ron couldn\'t have suggested with he *thought* Ron just suggested. Surely, he\'d mis-heard. \"Say that again, and this time . . . *speak English*.\"

Ron slumped. \"I asked, and both my Mum and my Dad said it was okay if you came with me. You know, when I explained about the huge project and all.\"

Shock waved through Draco. Him? At the Burrow? For part of winter break? That was something *Harry Potter* did, not Draco Malfoy.

\"Say something, Draco,\" Ron pleaded. \"Please.\"

Draco tried; he really did, but all that came out was a strange cracked squawk.

Ron wilted. \"Oh, come on, Draco, I realize it isn\'t exactly the Malfoy Estate Manor, but it can\'t be *that* bad!\" he snapped, spinning away.

Draco snapped out of his daze in time to grab Ron\'s sleeve as he began stomping off. \"Ron, wait.\"

Sullen, eyes angry, Ron turned and faced him. \"Why should I?\" he asked.

Draco almost smirked. It was a reversal -- almost -- of the night that had gotten them the projec the the first place.

\"Because it isn\'t what you think. I was just shocked, that\'s all.\"

\"Shocked?\" Ron repeated, disbelieving.

\"Yes,\" Draco confirmed, \"shocked.\" He sighed. He really didn\'t know how to explain it. \"Who always spends part of his breaks at your home?\" he asked, willing Ron to understand so he didn\'t *have* to put it into words. He wasn\'t entirely certain he could, not and make Ron understand.

Ron frowned. \"A lot of people do,\" he said. \"I mean, we\'re a pretty big family.\"

Draco rolled his eyes. \"Well, *duh*, that\'s like the biggest *not* secret in the wizarding world, Ron. The name Weasley is rather synonymous with \'big family\'.\"

\"Don\'t forget poor, *Malfoy*!\"

Taking a deep breath, Draco ignored the taunt, outwardly anyway, part of him *really* wanted to lash back. Instead, he got back to his original question. \"I *meant* who besides your family usually ends up spending part of *his* break with you at your home?\"

Ron\'s eyes widened. \"Oh! Well, yeah, he\'ll probably be there, too, but I thought you two were getting along pretty well now, and I didn\'t--\"

\"That\'s *not* why I brought it up!\"

Rearing back, Ron frowned. \"Well, why did you then?\" He seemed honestly confused.

At this point, Draco wasn\'t even sure anymore. \"Just forget it. It\'s not that big a deal. It\'s just for the last 7 bloody years, it\'s been a trademark of Harry Potter\'s life. It makes it feel . . . odd . . . you know?\"

Ron grinned then; though his eyes seemed sad -- which Draco didn\'t understand until the red-headed prat opened his mouth. \"Well, Hermione was a pretty regular guest too, you know . . . if that comparison makes you feel any better.\"

Draco\'s jawed dropped open. \"You didn\'t just--\" he started, but didn\'t finish.

\"I did!\" Ron squeaked, whirled and took off, hitting the library doors at a full tilt run.

Shock held him in place for a split-second then Draco pelted after the red-headed fiend, slipping through the doors just before they swung shut. Fully expecting to have a full-out, castle-over chase on his hands, Draco was startled to run literally into Ron\'s back almost the moment he passed into the hall.

\"Hermione!\" Ron exclaimed breathlessly, standing stock still

Stumbling backward, falling quite inelegantly onto his arse-end, Draco frowned up at Ronald Weasley\'s back. \"You\'re not supposed to be *easy* to catch, Weasley. You\'re supposed to--\"

\"What are you talking about?\" Draco asked scrambling to his feet as he realized the hall wasn\'t exactly empty. Several professors, as well as students, were milling near the front door. As he stepped to the side he caught sight of what, exactly, Ron had been referring to. He almost couldn\'t believe it. Wasn\'t she supposed to be dead? She\'d turned toward them and was staring at Ron in confusion.

With a minute shift of posture, she was staring at him. He frowned as her eyes seemed to glaze over, her expression growing slack, but what really startled him was when she started screaming. Draco took a step forward, not understanding her rather extreme response. Sure, they\'d never gotten along, hated each other, in fact, but wasn\'t screaming like a banshee at the sight of him a little ridiculous?


TBC
Kiristeen
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