Mistaken Identities

After dealing with the very complicated spell and ritual around a Wizard's Oath, Hermoine felt inexplicably shy and a little foolish presenting her hypothesis to Draco. She had no idea if she was right and if she was wrong... she was going to look like a jackass. In front of Draco Malfoy. She hadn't even felt comfortable telling Harry and Ron though she had written them a letter in case something went wrong.

"I'm not sure..." She stopped and trailed off. "I think there are wizard's in New York City. I mean, a number of them. Like... a community." She stopped. Draco didn't say anything and seemed to be listening to her intently. It was an improvement over the laughter she had secretly been expecting.

"Okay, so, it all sort of came together by accident. I found a book in... in the library." Hermione clamped down on the urge to babble. For all she was beginning to trust Draco there was no need to show him all her cards and mentioning that she'd stolen a book, well, several books, from the Minstry of Magic during the debacle of their fifth year definitely counted as showing too many cards. "Let me back track. Have you ever heard of a group called the Maol?" Draco gave her a blank look. "Hmm, ok. It started in the late 1600's in Ireland but really only gained popularity in England, mainly because of the larger magical community. It was never a big movement because they were pretty much of the opinion that Muggles were extremely dangerous to the well being of the magical community and that the solution was to withdraw from the world entirely. The movement trickled off sometime in the late 1700's. Most of the history books think this is because the movement lost it's appeal. I think it may be because the true believers picked themselves up and moved to the Americas. Are you still with me?"

Draco blinked and nodded though his expression was a little bemused.

"I think this because while I was... I came across a book. More of a journal really written by a man named Retamus Filius. He was, sort of the leader of the Maol at the time and felt... very strongly about his position. The book doesn't mention anything specific the the last entry essentially said 'Bollocks to you people, I am out of here.' I would have never given it another thought but then I overheard S... someone mutter about how much they hated the beginning of school term and that they were going to move to New York so they would never have to do anything magical, ever again." At this, Draco, who had given a small smile at her approximation of the journal, let out a laugh.

"Uncle Severus has been muttering that under his breath since I was in swaddling clothes. I'm sure he'd be pleased to know it was inspiring to someone. Well, as much as my Uncle is ever pleased about anything." Draco stopped talking and dropped his eyes. "Please, continue."

"Something in my head clicked. Where would you go if you wanted to seperate yourself from the world in the late 1700's? The Colonies would have been wild but easily manipulated. A few well placed spells and a good Arithmancer could have directed the city into becoming what it is today." Hermione paused again. This is where her logic began to rely more on instinct than hard data.

"Why a seperatist movement want to be in a huge muggle city?" Draco asked.

"Do Wizards have the saying that something lost is always in the last place you look? A muggle city where magic goes wrong solves a variety of problems that comes from trying to vanish. It keeps the muggles away since there is little or no superfluous magic being done in the city to draw attention to your group and, arriving early in the development would allow a community to be built in from the beginning. Something that would be more difficult to achieve in other places. And it keeps the magical community in the dark. No well-wishers, salesmen or busybodies around to call attention to yourself. It's actually quite brilliant."

"Forgive me but, why do you care?" Draco asked, shifting in the room's uncomfortable chair.

"This is, a little bit of a hypothesis but... what do you think it would take to maintain a completely secret magical community? More than that, to make all other magic go wrong? That's a series of very powerful spells designed to conceal magic and magical emanations. Are you following me?"

"You think this could tip the balance in favor of the Light, don't you?" Draco pursed his lips in thought. "It might, it might not. It depends on what kind of spells we're talking about."

"Exactly. I know it's a long shot but if we could either hide our own magic or disrupt Moldy's it totally changes the kinds of attacks and defenses we can make. It could change everything."

"Moldy?" Draco's face was twitching with the effort of restraining his laughter. Then his shoulders began to jerk. "Moldy?" He squeezed out again, this time sounding choked. Finally, the humor of the nickname overwhelmed him and he roared in laughter. Hermione joined him and the two ended up on the floor, wheezing out the dregs of their humor.

"Well, what do you think?" Hermione asked, wondering why she had even asked. To distract him, she poked him sharply in the ribs. His unexpected giggle made her grin and she jumped on the moment, tickling him aggressively. He wriggled in a most satisfying manner underneath her until she found herself pinned underneath him.

"When do we start?" His voice was low in her ear and made her shiver.

"As soon as possible?" Hermione whispered back, closing her eyes as his lips grazed her neck.

"Hmm...soon might have to wait."

*Maol is the Gaelic word for: blunt, bare, hornless, bald and pronounced (MWEE-uhl). Or at least, that's what the internet told me.


A/N Sorry for the long wait...I've been out of town for a while and had an abominable internet connection. Let me know what you think...