145 Maybe...

"I really can't stop getting surprised." Hermione said looking around the place carefully as Starlight slowly walked around, "Ever since I was introduced to the magical world, every day has just been full of curiosity and surprises. I don't think I'll ever stop being impressed with magic... like there's somuch to learn."

Draco looked at Hermione with a soft gaze as it was really rare for the proud and competitive Hermione to really show her feeling around others, especially things relating to magic. Feeling Draco's gaze Hermione looked back at him, "What is it?"

"Nothing." Draco shook his head.

Hermione shook her head as she started talking again after a while, "I understand the purpose of this suitcase, but I still don't get why you need all this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I am talking about these creatures... I get the plants, your potion lab but I can't understand why would you need all these creatures to be around with you, especially those dangerous ones while we're in Hogwarts."

"Well, it just started with me being curious and wanting to do something." Draco said, "I decided on keeping them when I met Starlight. I mean he was injured and with Voldemort roaming around in the forbidden forest at the time, sending him there again felt wrong so I tried communicating with him. I don't know what we really talked about, but he wanted to stay with me and I wanted to keep him. Then, came the murtlap then Fluffy. Within a short time, I already had 3 creatures I needed to take care of. All this felt a lot but I recognized their value when the fight broke out during the holidays. You know there are separate versions of how the fight went down but in all honesty, if these creatures weren't around, I'd probably be long dead or at least I think I would..."

Hermione carefully listened to Draco as he continued after a moment of silence, "After that, I guess I grew fonder of them. I do have my own selfish reason but then again me liking them is really the truth. I might have gone overboard with the Lethifold and Norberta but I don't really regret it. They are very honest you know, unlike humans they don't lie and stay true to their nature... As for why I have them around with me, I guess you could call it protection, but I don't know who's protecting who... and besides, I really don't have a place to keep them other than the case."

"Sigh! If they get out, they could cause a lot of trouble, can't they?" Hermione said, "Especially Norberta, she's already a big dragon, won't she..."

"Don't worry about that." Draco said, "She's really trustworthy. She didn't chase after you or bother you right?"

"Yeah but..."

"Hermione, all these aside I am trusting you to keep this a secret, okay." Draco said seriously, "If people find out not only me but all my creatures would be taken away as well. So you can't tell it to anyone, not even Potter and Weasley."

"I know." Hermione nodded seeing Draco's serious face.

"Let's go, let me show you my lab." Draco said patting Starlight, signaling him to stop as they had already reached his lab, "It looks small but it's big from within."

Draco got off Starlight and helped Hermione down as well. They both went inside the small hut, which really wasn't small from the inside. Hermione looked around curiously at all the potions on the walls, different books and the place filled with lab equipment. The place reminded her of the potion classroom, but more advanced and friendly looking than the damp and cold classroom of theirs.

Draco took out his wand and waved it around chanting spells, cleaning the place off. "Sorry, it's a bit dirty here. I don't allow the elves in and I don't really clean around that much."

Hermione shook her head specifying she was fine with it as she went towards the potion shelf. "What are these blood potions?"

"Oh, those are my experiments... you don't really want to touch them." Draco lied with a straight face as he sat on one of the chairs preparing himself a cup of tea.

Hermione looking around went over to the bookshelves. She picked up the books one by one. The books here were mostly related to potions while some were about formations and alchemy. She casually picked a book and opened it. She had never seen the book before nor did she know about the title. Looking at the title of the book it seemed to be about Alchemy but she put it away quickly as the front page of the book had, 'Property of Black family' written on it with huge letters. She knew that pure-blood family had their own hidden secret magic and stuff and it was considered rude to read them without the owner's permission. Even though she knew Draco would likely not mind it, she still wanted to respect his private matters.

"Want some tea?" Draco asked looking at Hermione.

"No, thanks." She replied as she looked back but her gaze wasn't on Draco but the egg that was at the corner of the room. "What is that?"

Draco looked in the direction Hermione was looking at to find the egg, "An egg." he replied.

"I can see that too." Hermione said rolling her eyes, "I was asking about the egg. Is it another creature?"

"Well sort of, it's a hybrid egg."

"Hybrid?" Hermione walked closer towards the reddish golden egg, "Isn't that illegal?"

"It is." Draco said, "Don't look at me like that, I didn't breed it. I just bought it."

"Do you know what creature is inside it?" Hermione asked

"Well, I know it's a mixture of a different creature, mostly from the serpent family but I am having my doubts." Draco said, "At first, I thought it was a successful Hybrid but it's been a month and I haven't seen any changes in it."

"Then why did you buy it then?" Hermione said, "Even though I don't know much about them, I at least know that most Hybrids don't survive and even if they do they don't last long."

"I felt something at the time." Draco said shaking his head as he approached the egg and started tapping on it, "You could call it a gut feeling I guess. But now, I don't feel anything, either the egg stopped developing the way I wanted it too or I was wrong from the beginning."

Hermione suddenly noticed something as she pulled Draco's hand.

"What happened?"

Hermione didn't say anything and pointed at the egg which now had red smudges on top of it. Draco looked back at it his hand which was bloody. Draco pulled his robe back to see a cut on his arms which was causing the bleeding. He realized that it could've had happened when he crash landed with the statue in the well.

"It's not a big deal," Draco said pointing his wand at the wound, "Ferula"

The cut immediately was bandaged up within seconds.

"If Theodore was here, he could have healed those small cuts easily." Draco said, "I guess I need to focus on healing spells as well."

"Sigh! I thought you said everything went fine with the Kelpies." Hermione said looking a bit annoyed, "What really happened down there?"

"Oh! something unexpect--" As Draco was about to complete his words he suddenly started hearing a familiar tone of heartbeats. He quickly turned to look at the egg, which seemed alive again. Draco couldn't help but stare at the egg which seemed dead ever since he bought it here but now it started giving him the same familiar feeling as before. The feeling that it was alive. He looked at the blood on the top of the egg which was disappearing at a fast pace with his eye's wide open, "Maybe..."