//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Harry Potter and the Evil Within 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

"An' then he wouldn't say anything else. But I could see in his eyes he was angry. I've never seen Percy so angry before." Ron was shaking his head. "If it hadn't been for the guard they sent with him, he wouldn't have made it."

Ginny was the first to reply. "It was kinda the same with me. They attacked and tried to take me off Searing Spear—she was the guardpony that was escorting me to the castle each day. That's when I had to fight off the Ministry thugs."

"I thought you were mostly joking," Ron said. "Then you showed us how good you got dueling. I can believe it now."

"That doesn't sound like the sort of thing the Ministry would do." Hermione didn't sound sure of her words. We all looked at her waiting for more. "What if it's just a few of them doing bad things?"

"Why don't we find out?" I asked.

Ron and Ginny both stared at me as if I'd gone crazy.

"Have you gone crazy?" Ron asked.

"No," I said, "what I mean is what if me and Hermione go and try to sus things out?"

Ginny shook her head and looked, even with her lineart style face, worried. "Harry, I don't think you should. They're not playing around."

"Well, someone needs to, and if not us then who?" I looked over at Hermione and raised an eyelid at her. "So, are you up for it?" 

"Up for what, Harry Potter?" Addera's voiced shocked me and I jerked around to look at her. She slithered in quickly.

"Err." I felt like I'd been caught doing something wrong. Was it something wrong? I wanted to protect my friends if this really was something getting worse. "I was asking if she wanted to go with me to find out what the Ministry is doing. They seem to be attacking students, but it's always isolated stuff. It's not like they're throwing themselves around."

"There was, uh, one time they did." Ginny's words drew all our attention to her. "I was with Cadance at a party she was holding. There were a few Ministry people there and one was—uh—I think his name was Trencent? Anyway, he's the leader of the Ministry here. He tried to obliviate Cadance."

We were all silent a moment. If the leader of the Ministry was doing that, it meant—"Wait, that still doesn't tell us all of the Ministry are bad. There might be others working there who need help getting out," I said.

"Professor Sparks mentioned she was in the Ministry." Hermione said. "Maybe we should ask her if she knows anyone else who might want to get out?"

"If we ask a professor, they'll tell us not to go," Ron said.

Addera spent all her time looking at me. I know she didn't have to have her head turned my way to see me, what with the scrying glasses she wore, but she was looking right at me and I knew what she was going to say even if she never said it. 

The problem was she was right. Maybe. Probably. "We shouldn't go," I said.

Ron nodded. "Right. They'll say we shouldn't go. That's why—"

"No. I mean I think we shouldn't. There's probably someone already working on this and what could we do when the boss of the Ministry is in on it?"

"But they won't be expecting us. We could tell them we're unhappy with how things are going and that we want to be on the 'right' side when everything is said and done." Gesturing at the window, Ron shook his head. "We should be careful and have a way to get out if something bad happens."

"Hold on, Ron," Hermione said. "They attacked your brother and sister. You can't go."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because they'd grab you and use you to get to Ginny and Percy. We need someone else who they wouldn't think twice about," Hermione said.

"Draco."

We must have all been staring at Ron with some kind of shock because he puffed his chest out a little and said, "What?"

"Really?" I asked. "Draco Malfoy?"

Ron nodded to me. "He'd be perfect. No one would think he'd be out of place going to the Ministry to betray Hogwarts." 

"No he wouldn't, Ron," Hermione said, letting out a sigh. "Didn't you listen to a thing he said? He doesn't want to do all this kind of stuff. He just wants to be a pony."

"W-What makes you think there aren't spy ponies?" Ginny asked. "I m-met one. She was nice."

"How would that even work?" Ron asked. "Ponies are all—Well, they're all super nice and stuff."

"Searing Spear was nice, but she also knew a lot of powerful magic. Shining is really strong with his magic, too, and Cadance is crazy powerful," Ginny said.

I let out a sigh. "This doesn't change that we really, probably, possibly, kinda, definitely shouldn't do this." I looked around everyone's faces, settling on Addera's with the definitely option. "Back on Earth I was always under pressure to do things because I was the one meant to stop Voldemort, but he's not here. Let an adult take care of all this stuff."

It was the least wizard thing I'd ever said, mostly because it made sense.

With a sigh, Ron slumped back. "I still think we should, but no one should go in there alone." 

Ron and Hermione wandered off together, talking about something still, which left Ginny and Addera still with me. I jumped up on Addera's coiled tail and walked up to her torso just in time for a hug. "Thanks, Addera. That was probably a really bad idea, even for a wizard."

"You're still going on about being a wizard, Harry Potter? You already are."

"No, this isn't being a wizard." It was so easy to relax in her hugs. Addera was probably the best-equipped hugger in the world. "Being a wizard is…"

I let out a happy sigh as she squeezed me with her coils and then relaxed her grip again. "It's making the wrong choices for the right reason. It's spending way too much magic filling a teacup with boiling water. It's doing crazy magic just because that crazy magic can do what you want."

"I—I think I get it," Ginny said. "So if I used a fire whip to light a fire?"

"Yeah. That's it exactly. But witches tend to be more, too. Like, when McGonagall takes control of insane situations just by using a stern voice? That's being a grade-A witch." I tried to think of other things that were overly witchy, but I was drawing a blank.

"Am I a witch?" Putting just the right amount of emphasis on it, Ginny raised one drawn-on eyebrow at me.

"Ginny, you burn magic by the second just existing like that. You can duel how many wizards to a standstill? And—AND—you have a whole world where you can hone your skills in bright pink halls. You're just about the witchiests witch I ever met." That's when something reminded me of our times together before school break. "Hey, do you think you could help me work on my drawing again?"

Laughing, Ginny nodded to me. "Sure, but it makes me giggle since I am a drawing now." She held out her arm as if to demonstrate.

"Thank you, Harry Potter, for not being too much of a wizard." Addera gave me another little hug before uncoiling herself and slithering to a chair. "Now I need to work on my homework."

Turning my attention back from where Addera was pulling out a book, I reached into my own pack to pull out my notepad. "So, what do you think I should draw?"





Hermione Granger looked at Draco Malfoy. "Well?"

"Isn't this normally the kind of thing you do with Harry?" Draco, in the great hall, was dipping his fish fingers in some tomato sauce before eating them. It might be the most peasant of peasant food, but he could remember time spent at home when the kitchen staff would make him something actually tasty rather than the depressing meals his parents frequently ate.

"Well, yes, but he's being all sensible." The way Hermione said it made even her consider how sane she was.

"For once in my life I might actually agree with him. Don't get caught up in something so big you can't get out of." Picking up his chip sandwich, Draco took a big bite and made a happy sound as the carb-on-carb meal flooded his mouth with memories and flavor.

"That's just it." Hermione felt a driving force behind her in the certainty that there were people in the Ministry who couldn't work out how to get out. "There are definitely people already caught up in it. I want to help them."

Letting loose a sigh, Draco felt the achingly pony sensation of wanting to help a friend. "What do you have planned?"

"First we need to find where the Ministry are. We need to head over there and talk to them about—about an internship." She hadn't actually planned that far yet, but Hermione was bulldozing ahead and making up a strategy as she went.

"What if they tell us to sod off?" Draco asked. "We're not exactly the most useful types, and despite wanting to help, I'm not going to do something dangerous that might hurt people."

"We can just tell them that. We want to help, but we don't want to hurt anyone." Hermione was in the process of mentally congratulating herself when she spotted movement under one of Draco's wings. "What's that?"

Turning to look where Hermione had pointed, Draco found himself smiling. "That's Bes. Come on out, sleepy head. She likes to snooze where it's warm."

Slithering out and onto Draco's back, Bes did a little yawn and slithered up until her head was poking out of Draco's mane between his ears. Flicking her tongue out a few times, she turned lazily as a plate with several crispy rodents on it appeared.

"Uh, thank you," Draco said to whomever had made the plate appear. Lifting one of the mice up with the tips of his wing-feathers, he tossed it up to where he felt Bes to be.

Hermione felt the pit of her stomach drop out from under her as she watched the little snake bare a big pair of fangs and catch the mouse mid-air. "Y-Y-You have a pet snake?"

"Don't you have a pet?" Draco asked.

"No. I always wanted one, but it's a little hard looking after a cat that talks or an oversize toad when we live in the muggle world. I guess it doesn't matter so much now." As she watched Bes gulp down the mouse, Hermione wondered what kind of pet she could get. "She doesn't bite, does she?"

Draco actually giggled at that, then quickly covered his snout as if he hadn't. "You'd know if she bit someone here."

About to open her mouth and ask what that meant, the solution became clear to Hermione after a little thought. "How venomous is she?"

"If she bit you, and you tried to walk to the hospital wing"—Draco grinned for effect—"you wouldn't make it."

"Either she's some kind of magical snake, then, or she's from Australia." It was meant to be a joke, but when Hermione said the last word, Draco giggled and nodded. "You keep her well-fed, correct?"

"I would never let her go hungry. She's a fierce little warrior, but she likes to keep warm and nibble mice." Tossing another mouse to Bes, Draco reached a feather up and rubbed her under the chin. "Do you want to pet her?"

Leaning forward, Hermione held her hand out, palm up, with just two fingers extended. "Like this?"

Bes eyed the approaching fingers, but with a belly full of mouse she had no designs on eating a huge creature. Added to this was the strange way the fingers sparkled. When they made contact with her nose, however, she leaned against them because they were warm.

"I thought she'd be—Uh, I guess I haven't really petted a snake before. Addera doesn't feel like that, either. She has soft bristles on her scales." As she spoke, Hermione kept up petting Bes, a little surprised at how fine the snake was with the attention. "She likes this, huh?"

"Bes loves attention. I wish I could spend more time just talking to her and petting her, but school is important." Draco couldn't hold back a smile as Bes closed her nictitating lenses and stretched forward to wrap a coil around Hermione's wrist. Have you thought of getting a pet snake? They don't cause as many problems as cats and toads."

The thought had never entered her head, but now that it had Hermione couldn't help but consider it. "Where would I find a pet snake here, though?" 

"If we could find another snake like Bes, but male, we could have several. But the odds of that are not good. What about if we ask around about local snakes?" Draco watched as Bes slithered off him and onto Hermione's arm. Having never shared Bes' friendship with anyone before, he got a little thrill from seeing her get along with Hermione.

"Harry said there was a pony in Ponyville that took care of a lot of animals. Maybe I could go there and ask them?" Hermione knew she should be worried about having a venomous snake coiled around her arm, particularly when Bes was intent to get her body inside the sleeve of Hermione's robe, but there was a sense of relaxation about the animal that put her at ease.

Draco tapped his chin with his hoof in thought. "We could go there during winter break. I mean, you'd need your parents' permission, and I'd have to write to Twilight to ask if it's alright, but we could take the train to Ponyville and try to find them."

Hermione's face fell. "My parents are in Canterlot trying to find what they need to start up their work again. It might be hard to find them."

"Your friend is one of the only people in the castle with an owl. You could ask him," Draco said.

It took Hermione a moment to realize who Draco meant. "Oh, I guess I could." Turning her attention to the snake now doing its best impression of an oversize and decorative glove, Hermione lifted her up to eye level. "Are you okay with staying there while I eat?"

Bes understood Hermione well enough to know she didn't have to abandon her warm spot if she was happy to put up with some jiggling. Such motion she was used to, and so she flicked her tongue out to taste the air in assurance to her heat-host.

"She's fine. Warm and with a full belly, she won't mind if you jostle her a bit," Draco said. "Now, about the first thing. We shouldn't have anything to do with it. There are people who are already working on that stuff and, ultimately, if there is too much to handle and it gets out of control, somepony will let the princesses know."

"You mean Celestia and Luna?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah. I was reading some of Twilight's history books and Princess Celestia has been ruling Equestria for over a thousand years. She almost single-handedly took care of any major problems that came along. Then, before that, she and her sister did that together." Draco left out the big history of Nightmare Moon. It was a strange topic for him, but the return and rebirth of Luna was something he wanted for himself—to be free of his past transgressions.

"Oh. Uh." Hermione wasn't sure how to get around that for a moment, then her mind latched onto one aspect. "But there would be a lot of people who get hurt before then."

Draco sighed. "You're not going to let it rest, are you?" When Hermione shook her head, Draco let out the kind of sigh he used to use to fend off Slytherin first years asking stupid questions. "Alright, but if things look bad, we're leaving."

"Of course. We'll come back and tell—I guess we'd tell the guards at the castle?" Hermione found a spot under Bes' jaw that made her tongue flick out every time it was stroked. When the snake seemed to be perfectly happy to keep being petted there, she continued. "That seems like the smartest bit."

"Yes. We also need to leave a note in case we can't get out. Make sure it's somewhere someone will find in a week or so." Finishing up his sandwich, Draco used the last bit of it to scoop up all the left over sauce on the plate.

"Right." Hermione felt excitement rush through her. It reminded her of her time helping Harry with the whole heir of Slytherin thing, as well as all their other adventures. "Right!"





Sneaking out of the castle when it had only been patrolled by one man and his cat had been oddly difficult—trying to do it when there were armed guards keeping a patrol outside was nearly impossible. It was why Hermione Granger was thankful Draco Malfoy had some kind of secret exit.

When Draco closed the door to his rooms, he took a slow breath. "Now, it'd be really neat if I had a way to get out of the castle."

"Wait, what?" Hermione asked. "I thought you said you had one?"

"I do, I just need to ask the castle to make it." Draco opened the door again and walked inside. There was now a very conspicuous candlestick standing to one side near the wall. "See?"

"No I don't get what—" Words dying in her throat, Hermione watched Draco open the hidden door in the wall with the candlestick. Walking in behind him, she was about to draw her wand when Draco cast a light spell and all the big feathers on his wings lit up. "Wait."

With his wings just out and to the sides, Draco looked back at Hermione.

"How did you make all your feathers light up like wands?" Hermione just got a raised eyebrow as her reply. She thought about it and shook her head. "No. Your feathers couldn't be wands because that would be…" 

When Hermione didn't finish the sentence, Draco laughed. "They are."

Hermione just stared. "What? But how? Surely ponies would have worked it out long ago if—"

"It's only crystal pegasi. Twilight has written a preliminary paper up after some experiments with other feathers, and it was only mine that worked. She's trying to get more crystal pegasi to donate a feather to her tests." Leading the way down a staircase, Draco heard Hermione following. "You might want to use your wand, still. It's safer if we both have lights."

"Right. Hey, when did you get so good at this kind of thing?" Hermione asked.

"Since I—" Draco took a deep breath and sought refuge in his desire to be a pony and not have to deal with human matters again. The irony that he was walking right into the middle of a huge human matter wasn't lost on him. "I read a lot, okay? Twilight had a lot of books and got me a card at the library in Canterlot."

Knowing that Draco did a lot of reading surprised Hermione probably more than she would have thought. "How do you know how the castle works so well? Did you really just ask it for this tunnel? Can you ask it for other things? Have you asked it for other things?" 

"I figured it out myself, yes, yes, and yes." Sparing a glance back at Hermione, Draco flicked a wing up to better illuminate her face. She looked annoyed. "I figured out how to use the room of requirement when I ran into it at the end of last semester. It will grow new parts when I say I need them. How do you think Slytherin had so many pony-shaped uniforms?"

"Huh. I thought you used magic?"

"You can't use magic to just make things out of thin air. Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration restricts it, though there are tricks around that."

Trying to work out what those tricks would be, Hermione thought on what the exceptions were. "Wait, if you made the cloth out of something edible, you could duplicate them several times."

"But we didn't. I got all the measurements of everypony and we I asked the room for all the clothes. Either it's exempt from Gamp's Law or there are a lot of clothes missing from somewhere." 

Hermione laughed. "Hopefully not while people were wearing them."

Managing two steps before he lost his fight to keep his giggles contained, Draco shook his head. "Maybe I should try this out and see which it is?"

Snorting, Hermione managed to say, "Give me a little warning first, or wait until after I have this animagus thing worked out first."

"You're really going through with that?" Draco asked.

"Yeah. I—" More stairs. Hermione took most of them down a whole floor before trying again. The leaf under her tongue felt huge. "It's all well and good getting to keep my fingers, but I don't fit in with my friends."

Draco stopped. "I guess I didn't think of that kind of thing. I mean, at first we were all worried about not turning into ponies because we wouldn't fit in back on Earth. But now—now I see where you're coming from." 

"Hopefully my animagus form will be something small." Hermione disliked how much of a deal Draco seemed to make of it. He was standing in her way and looking back at her with obvious concern. "Can we keep going please?"

"Yeah." Turning again, Draco headed off to another set of stairs. "Maybe you'll become something cool, like a snake."

Rolling her eyes, Hermione shook her head. "Don't even joke that. I'd get laughed out of Gryffindor if I turned into a snake."

"And welcomed into Slytherin." Draco let loose a laugh and started down what looked like the last stairs before a door.

"I'd join your house, whatever it is, before that." When Draco stopped and looked back at her, Hermione held out her hand. "I mean, if you made a house."

"I'll think about it. House Malfoy?" Reaching the door, Draco reached out with a hoof and poked at an obvious lever. The door opened into the night air of the Crystal Empire and he stepped outside—and instantly had to start flapping his wings. "Watch the step."

Hermione looked down and saw the street about thirty feet straight down. Casting one of the safe falling spells she'd learned when trying broom flight, Hermione stepped out and fell to the ground at a slow pace. Once her hooves touched the ground the spell ended.

"Lucky I was going first," Draco said as he landed beside Hermione. He banished his lights and tucked his wings back under his coat. "Come on, let's find the Ministry."

As soon as they'd left the vicinity of the castle, someone stepped out of a shadowed alleyway. "Well, well, well. Out a little late, aren't we?"

"Well duh." Draco walked toward the alley. "We should get off the street."

Narrowing his eyes, the man whistled. "Draco Malfoy. And, if I'm not mistaken, someone in a Gryffindor coat. What's two brats from Hogwarts doing out here?" He backed into the alley, more than happy to have them out of public view.

Hermione saw that one of the man's sleeves was empty as if he'd lost an arm. "We want to help the Ministry. What's going on isn't right."

The man let out a laugh. "Hear that, Sid? This BS is so thick even kids can see it."

"And right they are, Boris." Walking closer to the group, Sidney nodded deeper into the alleyway. "Might be a good idea to come with us. Smart kids like you have been getting into all sorts of trouble on the streets."

Looking at Hermione, Draco nodded. "Yeah, we don't want to get mixed up in whatever's going on in the city. My father wouldn't approve of any of that."

Boris froze where he stood and looked back and down at Draco. "Right, Malfoy. Your old folks are heroes—saved my life." He gave him a nod and turned back to lead them into one of the buildings. "Who's that with you?"

"Hermione. She's a good friend." Draco didn't elaborate further, but he gave as much weight to his words as he could. "Helped me out of—and into—a lot of jams."

"That's how you know the right people to be friends with." Sidney was less worried about the kids and more worried about who might have seen them. When the door closed after they all piled into the back entrance of their safehouse, he let out a sigh of relief. "Good to see not all you lads—and lasses—have lost your heads."

"We don't—we can't—be gone from Hogwarts too long," Hermione said.

"Right." Thankful for the spurring him along, Draco nodded. "It's not like we can do much anyway but get you information from within the castle."

"See, Sid, that's why the Malfoys were at the top. Alright, lad, bring us anything you hear about the Ministry or about these people," Boris said, jotting down some names on a piece of paper as he spoke, "and you'll be doing good work to see that wizards and witches are in charge of looking after wizards and witches."

Managing not to shudder at how the words made sense and set off alarms in her head, Hermione noticed Draco nodding along to it and started to worry. What if he went along with them? she thought.

Taking the paper and slipping it under his wing, Draco turned for the door. "Should we come back here when we know more?"

"Yeah. You do that. If you don't have anything by the start of the month, come and see us anyway."

Draco and Hermione kept quiet all the way back to the castle. Looking up at where they both knew the secret door was, it was Hermione who asked, "I know you can fly, but how do I get up there?"

"You haven't worked out flying or teleporting yet, right?" Draco asked. When Hermione looked back at him blankly, he shrugged. "That's normally how unicorns get somewhere a pegasus would normally be able to get."

"Flying? Like growing wings?"

"No. It's just—Okay, I don't know how she does it, but Twilight has the trick worked out. From what she said her daughter is one of Equestria's best teleporters. Anyway, let me fly up and open the door, then I'll lift you up here." Spreading his wings, Draco passed Bes and the letter to Hermione and took off.

Holding Bes, giving the sleepy reptile a slow rub under her jaw to apologize for waking her, Hermione watched as Draco flew up to the door and, after poking at the crystal there a bit, opened it. She had no warning at all when she started to float upward. Struggling to hold steady at first, she realized after a moment that Draco was using a strong version of a levitation charm. 

Flapping his wings slowly, Draco focused his magic down one of his feathers to lift Hermione up to the doorway. When she reached it and slipped inside, he jumped in too and closed the door behind him. "Pass me Bes and the note. We need to warn whoever is on it."

Reaching out with Bes, Hermione gave her one more rub on the jaw before letting her slither back into Draco's clothing. Unencumbered, she cast light a moment before Draco did. She saw shock register on Draco's face as he read it. "Who's on it?"

Draco just passed Hermione the note.



Cadance
Shining Armor
Minerva McGonagall
Alastor Moody
Albus Dumbledore
Sirius Black
Jenny Sparks
Tonks
Arthur Weasley
Harry Potter
Ginny Weasley 
Percy Weasley



Holding the note and feeling a chill rush of panic run through her, Hermione shook her head. "We need to go to McGonagall first. She'll be easiest to talk to and can get word to the others. Wait, I need to tell Harry and Ginny."

"They're safe within Hogwarts. We need to tell McGonagall first because if Harry or Ginny give us away, we'll be in more trouble than they are." Draco stepped around Hermione and started climbing the stairs back up to Hogwarts. "Now we just have to work out how to wake her up."