"Here drink this. Then cut your hand and put two drops in the Cauldrons."

"Bottoms up."

It was New Year's eve, 12:30 pm. It had taken Severus Snape 4 hours to prepare the fist step of an ancient ritual. Now he stood at the far end of the potions room in Malfoy manor. In front of him were two Cauldrons. Behind the Cauldrons stood Pansy and Hermione. Blaise and Dean were out flying with Harry and Draco. Neville, Seamus and Narcissa were seated near the door. The girls followed Severus' instructions and stood waiting for something to happen. Pansy frowned at her Professor.

Severus rolled his eyes. "That was only the first step don't be to hasty."

He stepped forward and started working on the Cauldrons. Adding ingredients Pansy had never heard of and ones that made Hermione question her knowledge. It took him another 3 hours to finish both of the potions. Scooping up two vials for each girl he then banished the rest of it. He handed the girls the vials and checked the time.

"It's 3:45 now. Wait 15 minutes more for that to settle. Take one. You will take the other after dinner. Then we will come back for the final step. Don't freak out if some animal starts talking to you at any point." Severus said and simply walked away.

"Shall I set the timer?"

"Sure Hermione."

Hermione set a magical timer. And the rest left the room. Neville and Seamus were asking questions about what animals the girls expected to show. Then Hermione walked smack, bang into something. She looked at and blinked at the person.

"Ahhh there you humansss are."

Hermione shook her head. "You know we don't understand pasletongue Adriana."

Adriana nodded and grabbed Hermione's hand. She pulled her through the halls. The other supposed people following. Then she stopped in front of a door and pointed to it.

"Thisss would be easssier if Massster Harry wasss here." Adriana shook her head.

"Can we go fetch Harry so he can at least translate." Pansy groaned.

Adriana held up her hand for them to wait and then disappeared. She returned almost immediately with a shocked Harry. He blinked a few times and looked around. Then he glared at Adriana.

"I need Massster Harry to transsslate. Massster'sss friend needsss to sssave her animal." Adriana smiled.

"Ssshe hasssn't even finissshed the ritual."

"But Massster Harry her magic isss ssstrong. Ssshe mussst take the drink thing and go in there to get her animal." Adriana pointed to the door.

"And what pray tell isss her animal and why doesss it need sssaving?" Harry asked.

"The other blonde man from lassst year. The one Massster'sss mate called father. He captured a baby drake. It isss very weak and needsss a magical sssourcsse to sssurvive. Her magical sssourcsse." Adriana stopped being vague and pointed at Hermione.

Harry nodded. "Hermione you need to drink whatever Sevy gave you and go in there."

"What's in there?" Hermione asked.

Narcissa shook her head. "Lucius wouldn't let anyone in there. Are you sure it's safe. We should..."

"Sorry Narcissa but Hermione has to do it on her own. Just trust me. Everything will be okay." Harry smiled and gestured for Hermione to hurry up.

Just then Hermione's magical clock went off. She shrugged and did as told. Drinking the vial she opened the door with her wand raised. She didn't want to close the door, but Harry nudged her forward and pulled the door shut. She grumbled under her breath but walked forward nonetheless.

"M... Master?" A strained voice echoed in Hermione's hand.

"Who... where are you?" Hermione asked.

"Master you don't need to be scared. I will never hurt you or your mate." The voice said.

Hermione was oddly comforted by the voice. She knew it was a male voice no doubt. And she could sense it wasn't human. It took her a minute to realize before it all clicked into place.

"You called me Master. And mentioned a mate. Are you my spirit animal?" She knew that was a stupid question.

"Indeed. Now that you are here I can regain my strength and serve you properly." The voice said.

Hermione nodded. The room was dark so she couldn't see much. Then she mentally kicked herself. Scolding her my for being so slow. She could feel and hear what the voice said about regaining strength. It wasn't sounding as broken and forced the more it spoke. She cast a lumos still mentally scolding herself for not thinking about it sooner.

"What are you exactly? You're too small to be a dragon but you look like one. And what do I call you?" Hermione asked examining the horse-sized creature curled on the floor.

"I am a drake. A smaller relative to dragons. Smaller yes, but much more fierce. You may call me Verta."

"Interesting. Roughly translated as blood. Okay Verta, I'm going to refer to you as V." Hermione smiled. "Will you move soon?"

"Once my energy has been restored. It may go faster if you are closer." Verta said.

Hermione walked over to him and started petting him. His scales were smooth and hot. Or so he said, but to her touch it was icy cold.

*~*

"Where's Hermione?"

"Don't worry Blaise."

"Harry we haven't seen her since she went into that room. Blaise has a right to worry."

Harry leaned back in his chair. "Pansy for the hundredth time. She is perfectly safe and she will be here in time for dinner."

Blaise frowned. "What room?"

"Some room Lucius never let anyone in."

Draco gasped and stared at Harry. "Are you sure..."

"Okay fine. I was going to wait for her to explain..."

"Massster Harry I cannot allow you to sssay anything." Adriana hissed cutting Harry off.

Harry raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Doesss it have sssomething to do with the ritual?"

Adriana chewed her lip. "No but if Blaissse knowsss the truth he will want to find out immediately. They mussst wait till new yearsss. Otherwissse it could caussse problemsss."

"I don't underssstand. Why wasss it ssso different with you?"

"I wasss not sssummoned with a ritual. Thisss isss why ssso many wizssardsss ssstopped the ritual. There are variousss loopholesss that can harm the ssspirit animal." Adriana explained.

Harry nodded. "Sorry can't say."

Blaise got angry. Mostly because he was worried about Hermione. He growled at Harry. Adriana stood up in front of him and hissed at Blaise in warning. Draco jumped between the two.

"Whow. Relax Blaise. Harry probably has a very good reason he's not sharing. We just have to wait and see okay." Draco said.

*~*

Everyone had settled in for the rest of the night. Hermione had returned at dinner like Harry had said. After dinner they all went to the potion room to finish off the ritual. And then returned to the lounge. Hermione hadn't said anything about what happened while she was "gone" yet. Blaise wasn't going to push because he was just happy she was safe. He had apologized to Harry for his little outburst earlier and Harry just smiled at him.

"Ow! What the fuck!"

Everyone turned to the noise. Dean was staring down what looked to be a wolf pup. Dean's forearm was bleeding a bit as he held it. The wolf walked over and licked the wound and it healed.

"I didn't mean to hurt master's mate that much. I just got a little excited."

"Huh?" Pansy blinked at the creature.

"Oh forgive me for my rudeness master. I am Zachariah. You and your mate had a half completed bond so I felt the need to complete the process before anything bad could happen." The pup sat down staring at Pansy.

"Zachariah huh? Where did you come from?" Pansy asked unaware that she looked like she was crazy.

"Master can talk to me through out mind link. I am sure you know that spirit animals can just appear whenever and wherever." Zachariah explained.

"Oh. So it's like Harry and his pasletongue then? Except other people won't hear me." The pup nodded. "That's cool. Think I'll stick to normal communication methods thanks. And I think I'll just call you Zach."

Dean cleared his throat making Pansy look at him. He raised an eyebrow and Pansy just smiled. She picked up the pup and started petting it.

"Dean meet Zach. My spirit animal. He says sorry for hurting you by the way. Just got excited." Pansy said.

Dean shook his head. Draco and Harry exchanged a smirk having noticed their friends didn't realize what just happened. Hermione frowned before her eyes went wide. She got up and grabbed Dean's forearm to examine it. Zach growled at her in warning.

"Do you know what this is?" Hermione asked ignoring the wolf.

"He bit me, so what?" Dean shrugged.

Harry started laughing and Draco smacked him. "Now is not the time for you to ignore your friends confusion. He clearly doesn't get what Hermione is talking about."

"But Dray. You mean to tell me they forgot about all your complaining when Adriana bit you." Harry reasoned. "I mean Hermione didn't."

Then, as if the light came on, the others all realized. Hermione let go of Dean's arm and sat down again. They spoke and laughed until 11:45 pm. That's when Hermione suddenly stood up. She looked at everyone with a smile.

"Well. Happy early new year everyone." With that she pulled Blaise up and dragged him out of the room.

"Thossse two are finally going to complete the lassst ssstep of the bond." Adriana joked.

"Tell me about it." Draco slapped his hands over his mouth.

Everyone was staring at him. He blushed and looked down. Avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

"You can speak pasletongue!"

Draco scratched the back of his head. He looked at Adriana for help.

"Ever sssincsse you completed the bond. Ssspirit animalsss can give the mate the ability to underssstand them." Adriana hissed happily.

"Ssso Dean underssstandsss Zach. Which meansss he knew he wasss Pansssy'sss mate?" Adriana nodded. "That makes so much more sense now." Harry sighed.

"You can't seriously just accept that Draco can speak pasletongue Harry." Seamus said.

"Actually." Harry smirked. "I can. It just gives me something to look forward to."

Draco blushed knowing exactly what Harry meant. Boy he slipped up and Harry would not let him out live it. He looked at Harry through his eyelashes. The memory of the day they completed the bond flashed through his mind.

"You're joking right?"

"Nope."

"Pasletongue huh?"

'Oh boy I shouldn't have told him that.' Draco thought as the noticeable look of desire slowly disappeared from Harry's eyes. Draco turned even more red and looked down hoping it wasn't just him who was feeling overheated in the suddenly stuffy room. Dean basically saved him from his thoughts as he started counting down the seconds till New Year.