"So how would I be able to help in this adventure?" Garrick asked. He set down a fresh pot of tea and a few finger sandwiches onto the table. Hermione was browsing his personal collection of books by his desk and she gazed over the haphazard pile of wand cores on the table with an obvious urge to put them away properly.

Draco cleared his throat, eyeing Hermione. She frowned slightly, and walked back to the tea table to sit back down, but not without one last lingering glance towards the wand cores.

"We'd hope you would be able to talk with Lord and Lady Potter about the Invisibility Cloak. Their son, James Potter, has it at school and uses it regularly," Hermione said and placed two sugars into the cup and stirred four times clockwise and then again, three times counter-clockwise, before setting the spoon upon the saucer.

Draco regarded her tea-making with an amused, raised, eyebrow.

"We are concerned that his regular use of something connected to Death himself could have negative effects." Hermione continued, having taken a sip of her perfectly concocted tea.

Garrick nodded, his mouth pressed into a thin line in thought.

"It's indeed possible. Such an item that was not intended to last for so long in this world would most likely have some consequences."

"Are you able to remember anything out of the ordinary in the Potter family?" Hermione asked. "I know such information about a Noble House wouldn't be public, but is there anything you know of?"

"If I remember correctly, Lord and Lady Potter had a hard time conceiving James, and Dorea Potter almost died in the process," Garrick answered, his bushy white eyebrows furrowed in thought. "We all thought it was due to the inbreeding that the Black line had encouraged, but if what you think is true, then it is entirely possible that it was from Charlus Potter's overuse of the Invisibility Cloak during his time at school."

"If you are able to speak to them about this, and bring up the possibility of the Cloak impeding the reproduction of heirs, a House that has struggled with producing a child will most likely think it's better to be safe than sorry and either retire the Cloak or give it to us," Draco said.

Garrick nodded. "It's a rather good plan. Do you know where the others are located."

Hermione nodded. "The Gaunt ring, in Little Hangleton and Dumbledore has the Elder Wand."

"The wand will be the trickiest to get," Draco noted. "Dumbledore won't just give it to us, especially if he knows we have the other Hallows."

"We'll think of something, I'm sure," Hermione said, her mind already drifting off to different ideas.

"Now, I have a question of my own for the two of you," Garrick asked, his hands clasped and he looked intently at both of them. "If this is going to happen, and I am able to get the Cloak from House Potter, we will need to meet often, I assume, as a way to ensure none of us goes Hallow-hungry, and to plot the ways to the other Hallow."

Hermione and Draco nodded. Hermione tilted her head, wondering where his train of thought was going. He was a rather odd wizard, if she was to be quite honest. He had the tendency to ramble on his is thoughts and to forget where he placed things, but he was a brilliant wizard and an especially talented Wandmaker. She glanced again back to the cores laying out in the open. His organizational habits could be improved, though.

"I was considering acquiring an apprentice; I have yet to marry or have any children and keeping up with this place is rather tiring. How would the two of you like to become my Apprentices, hrm?" Garrick asked. "It could formal or informal, however you prefer, but I do believe formal would be rather traditional."

Draco's mouth fell open. Being offered a formal Apprenticeship was something to be proud of, only those who were magically strong enough to be Recognized where even considered for an Apprenticeship and many of those Recognized never even saw an Apprenticeship pin.

"I'd be honored, Master Ollivander," Draco replied, his head dropping in acknowledgment.

"Thank you, sir!" Hermione exclaimed, a bright smile upon her face.

Garrick smiled at both of them. They were certainly bright and well mannered. They would make excellent Apprentices, Garrick nodded to himself.

"Now, I shall write to your Headmaster, informing him of my offer. Would you rather it be formal or informal, my Apprentices?"

Hermione looked at Draco.

"Formal, if we can forage the correct paperwork for the Ministry. It would be problematic to try and tie us, magically, to the Bond if we technically don't exist." Draco answered for both of them.

Garrick nodded in understanding. If the Ministry had no files on them, then they technically don't exist, as all magical births automatically create a new folder in the Ministry Archives. To try and produce the Master and Apprentice Bond without the Ministry having said paperwork would shed light on his time-traveling Apprentices.

"If Dumbledore is willing, I bet he could pull a few strings," Garrick suggested. He stood and rummaged through his desk to pull out fresh parchment and a quill.

"I will expect to have you here in every Sunday and a few times during the week," Ollivander stated, looking at his two Apprentices.

"We can do Tuesdays and Thursdays, after two, if that works?" Draco offered.

"I will include a note to state that, depending on the work, you may be staying those nights as well. We might end up with quite the amount of work to do." Ollivander noted, scribbling away on the parchment.

"Thank you very much, Master Ollivander," Draco said, "for your time and for offering us such honorable positions. We really must be getting back to Hogwarts before our absence is noticed."
Ollivander waved a dismissing hand. "Of course, of course. I will get this letter to your Headmaster and I hope to see you back in my shop in the coming weeks."

oOo

The wall-mounted torches dimly lit Hermione's path as she made her way into the dungeons. Her thoughts wandered as she walked. Ollivander had not yet sent anything to Dumbledore, and she and Draco had been waiting anxiously for a few days since their meeting. Hermione knew that Draco had chosen the formal Apprenticeship for them both, but she really didn't know the difference between formal and informal. She made the mental note to ask Draco later.

Turning the corner, she suddenly found herself on the stone floor, her books scattered about.

"Oh!" Hermione said. "I'm terribly sorry. My fault, I should've been paying more attention."

Hermione looked up and there stood Regulus Black.

"It's alright really," he said, passing her one of her fallen books. "I've been trying to catch you."
"You have?" Hermione said, an eyebrow raised.

"Hmm," Regulus affirmed. "I have been wanting to thank you. For what you did."

Hermione smiled kindly. "Have you healed alright?"

"Yes," Regulus nodded, "thanks to you and Madam Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey reckons you saved my life, I probably would have died without your intervention."

"It was nothing," Hermione said. The thought of taking thanks for what anyone should've done made her a tad uncomfortable and she really wasn't sure how to respond.

Regulus's brows furrowed. "I won't say this lightly, Miss Granger, I suppose I owe you a life debt."

Hermione startled, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"You owe me nothing of the sort." She declared. "Anyone would've done it."

Regulus shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Besides, as tradition states, I owe you a life debt."

She waved her hand dismissively, "I don't think so. Just because 'tradition says so', doesn't mean you owe me a life debt."

Regulus, slightly taken aback, looked at her closely, "you're Muggleborn, aren't you?"

"Yes," Hermione said, a questioning look upon her face. "What does that have anything to do with it?" She asked with a sharpness to her tone.

He shrugged, "you may not understand it, but even so, I owe you a life debt. Ask any pureblood if you don't understand."

Hermione snorted and turned to look behind her as voices drifted towards them. She could see Sirius and James hurrying down the corridor. Their smiles faded and were replaced with puzzled expressions as they realized who she was talking to.

Regulus gave her a small smile. "I should be going. Give my brother my regards." He sneered, but Hermione could hear the anger directed at Sirius.

Giving him a gentle smile in return, Regulus left, ducking into a classroom just as Sirius and James caught up with her.

"What did he want?" James asked, snidely. Sirius glanced at Hermione and James nervously.

"He thanked me," Hermione said simply as she led them to Potions. The old classroom smelled particularly musty, most likely from an exploded potion in a previous class.

"Why?" James asked, his eyes questioning.

"For helping him that day in Hogsmeade," she replied, as she placed her books on the table next to the cauldron.

"A Slytherin giving thanks? He must have something up his sleeve," James said, sitting in the seat next to Hermione.

Hermione snorted.

"Well," Sirius began, "it is customary to at least thank someone for when they do something important for you. Mother ingrained proper etiquette into Regulus and me by the time we were five."

"You? Proper etiquette?" Hermione laughed. "That's ridiculous."

James chuckled with Sirius who shot Hermione a devilish smirk.

"I didn't say I followed the rules," Sirius chuckled.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "When do you ever?"

"Okay, class, settle down, settle down," Slughorn stalked into the room, his dark green cloak trailing behind him. He threw the cloak over his desk chair, as any good Potions Master wouldn't be caught brewing with such a hazardous cloak on.

"Today we will be brewing a rather difficult potion: the Polyjuice Potion!" Slughorn announced. He clapped his hands together gleefully.

"I don't-" the door opened loudly, revealing Draco who smiled at his Professor sheepishly.

"Sorry, sir," Draco said. "Lost track of time in the Library."

"No matter, my dear boy!" Slughorn smiled kindly. "Just take a seat."

Draco slid in the chair across from Hermione and pulled out his cauldron.

"Now! As I was saying, I don't expect any of you to get this potion right on the first try. It'll take a bit to brew, but I've already stewed the lacewing flies and the fluxweed has already been picked. Starting directions are on the board! Gather your ingredients and get brewing!"

"What are we brewing?" Draco asked.

"Polyjuice Potion," Sirius said unhappily. "Don't know how he expects us to get anything out of it, seems more like a waste of ingredients to me."

Hermione shrugged, not at all anxious of the brew. "Most likely wants to test our skills as brewers. We all know Slughorn likes to collect people, this will give him the chance to see who has real talent."

Draco chuckled. "I don't think you'll have any problems with this one, Hermione."

Hermione huffed and gathered ingredients from the storeroom.

"This isn't going to go well," James sighed. "How would we even test this besides making someone drink it?"

"The color," Hermione said as she measured out her fluxweed and knotgrass before adding them to her heated cauldron. "The color should be dark and muddy that slowly bubbles, although that changes when the piece of the person who will be imitated is added."

"Of course you'd know that," Sirius huffed a laugh.

Hermione smiled. "I should know, I've brewed this before."

James raised an eyebrow, "you have? What for?"

"Academic purposes," Hermione replied as she stirred her cauldron.

"Academic purposes, eh?" Sirius teased. "What'd you do? Break a rule as someone else?"

Hermione laughed. "No, of course not. Just wanted to see if it'd work."

"Did it?" James asked.

Hermione nodded, "My friends added their hair and it worked. I sort of had gotten the wrong hair. As you should know, this potion is not meant for cross-species transitioning. I had accidentally turned myself into a half-cat half-witch mix."

"Wicked," Sirius grinned. "Did you have a tail?"

Draco sniggered. "It was much like her hair, very bushy."

Hermione gasped an awkward laugh. "When did you ever see that?"

Draco froze for a moment, remembering their cover. As they had, supposedly, both previously gone to separate schools. "I had a picture of it."

"You did not!"

"Oh yes. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced it. Pity, though, would've loved to have shown it to Sirius and James here."

"I would have loved to have seen it," Sirius laughed.

Hermione smiled, "even if Draco still did have the picture, I'd never let him show it to you." She waved her wand over her pewter cauldron, setting a delayed stasis charm to start after eighty-minutes.

"Of course you would, Hermione," James said, "We'd irritate you until you gave in."

Hermione chuckled, "now that might've been the only reason you'd see it."

"Once you have set your stasis charm, you are free to leave. Please set your cauldron aside and clean your workspace." Slughorn announced. "We will continue next class!"

"Well I've finished for today, I think I'll head to the library, see you at dinner?" Hermione asked.

"I'll come with you," Draco stated. "I've got a Transfiguration essay to finish."

Hermione nodded.

Hermione and Draco said their goodbyes to the two Marauders and headed off for the library.

"Did you actually see me when I was half-cat?" Hermione asked curiously.

Draco laughed. "Yes, I did. Essentially the whole school had heard of your cat-like appearance, thanks to some gossiping portraits, and I just had to see for myself. I went in to see Madame Pomfrey for some fake illness, and I caught a glimpse of you in all your feline glory."

Hermione playfully swatted Draco on the arm, "Prat."

Draco chuckled as they continued on to the Library.

"I wanted to ask you, what's the difference between a formal and informal Apprenticeship?" Hermione asked with a quizzical gaze.

Draco shifted his books in his arms, "a formal Apprenticeship is when the Master and Apprentice accept the magically binding bond. It's a bond for life. Conventionally, Master's only take one formal Apprentice but have another informal Apprentice because of the bond. It's not impossible to have two bonded Apprentices, but it requires strong magic. An informal Apprenticeship doesn't have the bond and the public display of apprentice-hood. The formal is a universally respected position and only those who are Recognized, traditionally, achieve it."

"Recognized?" Hermione said as they neared the library. She truly hated being ignorant of wizarding etiquette and terminology. It had been her goal to work to assimilate as best as she could into her new world, before the war, but her education in that department had been slightly derailed due to a certain Dark Lord.

"Those who are Recognized, usually by a respected Master of a specific trade, are given an upper edge to those who are not. Those Recognized are seen as magically superior in certain areas and have the support of a Master." Draco explained and nodded politely to Madame Pince as they entered the Library. "It used to be much more commonplace, but rarely any would be Recognized in our time. There are many who were Recognized but never received an Apprenticeship, but it's still notable and honorable to even be Recognized."

"How common is it during this time?" Hermione asked.

"Not unheard of," Draco replied.

"It's not going to be strange that two people that the Ministry hasn't even heard of will both be formally bonded to the same Master?"

Draco shrugged. "Two formal Apprentices to one Master is slightly strange, but only because of the life long commitment to the Master it can be. Ideally, the Apprentice will take over the Master's trade and will be bonded until the Master dies. With two Apprentices it can be hard to say who will replace the Master."

"So with our formal Apprenticeship, do we have to become wandmakers?" Hermione asked, pulling out parchment to begin her essay.

"Of course not. It's not a direct line of employment, but more of a way of providing a guiding mentor who trains you either in solely his subject or in other subjects as well. I have a feeling that Master Ollivander will give us a well-rounded education." Draco said and pulled out his quill, ink, and blotting paper.

"I wish we had been taught about this sort of stuff," Hermione grumbled.

Draco nodded. "Us purebloods had been taught stuff like this before we even went to Hogwarts. I'm not surprised muggleborns, with no magical background, don't understand concepts like the proper wizarding etiquette and how the societal hierarchy works."

"It would have been so much easier to have a class for this for those who were raised by Muggles. We had a Muggle Studies class, why not a Wizarding Studies?"

Draco smiled kindly, "Dumbledore, as great as he was, was ignorant and oblivious to a lot that was needed during his time."

Hermione nodded in agreement.