Many thanks to Kuilin and Dan, who helped edit this chapter, and saving this story.

Chapter 56.

Space Travel, Part XIII: Position Problem - Draco

9:56 am, July 30th, 1993

Beside the newly named and magically enlarged "Star Lake" in Malfoy Grange in Wiltshire, Draco watched keenly as the modified space capsule disappeared in phoenix fire. Draco hoped that Godfather would have a soft landing in his farm in Nevada, United States. According to the plan, Godfather would go to Nevada, check on how the landing went and equipment worked, tie himself up in the space capsule again, and come back.

Draco then turned his eyes towards Harry, Hermione, Harry's Dad, and Hermione's parents, who were in some heated discussion that Draco couldn't even understand half of. Draco supposed, he should make himself useful in the discussion now. However, his heart wasn't quite in it.

Draco could feel that his position as the right-hand man of the new Light Lord had become more marginalized ever since this space mission came up. Draco knew very well why this mission could be the most important thing that wizards have ever done after the Interdict of Merlin, but the fact that he couldn't understand much of it made Draco feel rather insecure.

Moreover, Harry had been talking about re-organizing the Order of Phoenix, and recruiting new blood. If Draco had really been Number Two or Number Three in a group of ruling elites that he could understand, this would be a great opportunity for him to grasp more power. Unfortunately, Draco was faced with the challenge of "making rules for a modern ruling organization". And what was worse, Draco had little authority over anyone in their current core conspiracy: Harry was his Lord, Hermione was the Lady, Mad-Eye wanted to throw him into Nurmengard, Severus was his Godfather, and Father was, well, Father.

-OK, to be fair, after talking with Father, Godfather has agreed to consult with me on political matters if Father's advice is not available. Somehow, I have a feeling that Godfather is only doing this so that Father and I won't be in a difficult position, while he himself doesn't care much about what Harry thinks. No matter what, Godfather is still the most powerful wizard in our small conspiracy, and he is the one to go on the greatest mission in wizarding history. Therefore, in any power structure that makes sense, Godfather should have privileges, at least, more privileges than me.

Draco remembered a lesson that Father taught him long ago by heart, that Draco should respect people with real powers, be it magic, knowledge, or intelligence. And Father recently said, and Draco agreed, for the safety of the world, they should make sure that everyone respects people with real power as part of the rules which they were helping to make. For whatever weird reason, sometimes, the most powerful wizards in certain societies - such as Dumbledore in Great Britain, and Shakhov in Russia - might make themselves meek servants of the society, and accepted ridiculous rules made by lesser people. Only in societies like that, good-for-nothing bureaucrats such as Fudge and Smirnov could bully powerful wizards around. However, there would always be powerful wizards who didn't like the role of meek and harmless servant - the Comrades had overthrown the Soviet Union, the Dark Lord tried to challenge Dumbledore's orders, and for all Harry's pathetic pretence, the Boy-Who-Lived thought the world should be his own playground.

"Draco, could you come here for a moment?" Harry's voice interrupted Draco's train of thought.

The blond boy showed a bright smile: "Of course."

"Draco, Dad just raised a question that I need to ask you. Do you know if there is anyone who is rumored to be a phoenix animagus?" Harry asked.

Animagus was one of the few fields of magic that Draco grasped better than Harry and Hermione - maybe because their supposed animagus meditation session was interrupted by the house-elf thing, while Draco was the only one who got private lessons on it.

Father had told Draco that the gift of animagus passed down in families, and both the Malfoys and the Blacks had long lists of animagi in the bloodlines. Secretly, Draco thought Godfather's persistence in teaching him the arts of this advanced transfiguration had more to do with Draco becoming one at such a young age. Draco failed to turn into an animagus in his first animagus meditation, for he was unsure whether he should be a dragon or a snake. Ever since Draco could remember, he loved dragons. Draco knew all kinds of dragons in the world by heart when he was three years old, and he always considered the trip that Father took him to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary when he was six years old as the best vacation. However, no matter what Father said, the man Draco had alway looked up to was a Blue Krait; and for some reason, Godfather also seemed to have a preference for Draco to become a snake. Draco supposed, becoming a snake animagus would make the learning process of Parseltongue like a breath. In his second animagus meditation, Draco decided to choose a snakedragon, which was a rare crossbred between dragons and snakes. That time, Draco successfully adopted an animagus form that had never been recorded in history.

Draco supposed, his rare form of animagus was the reason that Harry asked him the question on phoenix animagus. Draco searched his memory, and answered: "There is no known phoenix animagus. However, Dumbledore's Patronus is a phoenix, and there is some correlation between the Patronus form and the animagus form. Therefore, if Dumbledore were a secret animagus, he is likely to be a phoenix animagus."

Harry replied: "Yeah, we've discussed that possibility. I'll ask Mr. Moody if he knows anything."

Draco briefly regretted his lack of involvement in the discussion among the "scientists", and offered more information as he could: "If you are asking about lores and stories about animagi in general, I think I've heard a bedtime story, where Merlin and an evil sorceress named Madam Mim had an animagus duel, and they turned into many different animals to beat each other. I think both of them seemed to be able to become any animal as they pleased. And in the same story, Merlin could teach King Arthur how to transfigure into both a fish and a bird. Actually, I think there are a number of stories where people could adopt a number of animagus forms."

Harry and Hermione seemed to be excited about this story. Harry asked: "In the rumors, lores, bedtime stories, or anything like that, is there anyone who can become more than one type of animal, say, in the past two hundred years?"

"No, I don't think so." Draco answered.

"Oh." Harry sounded a bit disappointed.

Just as Draco formed the resolution that he should spend more time with Stella, so he might have a chance to become a phoenix animagus to surprise his Light Lord with how useful he was, Harry said to Hermione: "Hermione, maybe you should spend some time with Fawkes, you have the braveness and light in your heart, so you may become a phoenix animagus. - Oh, and Draco, you may have more opportunities to spend time with Stella."

Draco wanted to roll his eyes upon this comment. Two days ago, after Harry concluded that Stella could gain energy from several different types of chemical reactions (Draco wasn't sure what that meant yet), he wanted to try to if Stella could utilize electrical energy. Draco was sure Stella didn't know what the black box named "car battery" was, but she was already quite annoyed by the rocket fuel that Harry fed her. Unfortunately for Harry, Stella partially understood Godfather's reply: "Mr. Potter, if I am not mistaken, things related to electricity don't work well with magic. Therefore, I don't assume the benefits of electrocuting Stella would outweigh the potential risk it brings to Stella."

Although Harry had eventually been convinced by Godfather, Draco thought Stella probably still considered Harry - and by association, his best friend and their parents - as people who wanted to hurt her. Stella had been avoiding the Boy-Who-Lived, the Girl-Who-Revived, and their family members since then.

Draco guessed, he had been useful in telling Harry that he shouldn't try to run the experiments that Stella disliked on Fawkes, for if both phoenixes avoided the Boy-Who-Lived and the Girl-Who-Revived, it would be bad for public relations and become a very negative indicator of their characters in front of potential allies. Draco knew the Boy-Who-Lived could handle political concessions pretty well, but the boy brought up by a Muggle scientist didn't like it when politics hindered the great process of science. However, giving Harry political advice was Draco's value in the core conspiracy, and he had to do the right thing to keep the world safe.

Draco suppressed his impulse to roll his eyes toward the scientists who came up with idea after idea, and shared his experience of becoming an animagus with his Lord and Lady as if nothing had happened: "The animagus meditation potion tastes like some food your potential animagus form likes. For me, it tasted like rare steak. After drinking it, I entered some sort of trance, my vision was both blurred and sharpened -"

A splash of water from the Star Lake broke Draco's sentence.

Everyone turned their head toward the lake. A conical shaped space capsule floated up from the lake, at a position that was two or three meters away from the marked designated point of landing.

A phoenix flame later, the space capsule appeared again on the lakeshore. After a few seconds, the capsule was opened from the inside, and Godfather climbed out with Stella on his shoulder.

Godfather appeared a bit clumsy in the spacesuit. He clicked something, and the back of the spacesuit opened. Godfather climbed out from the back of the hard-shell spacesuit, and said: "As tested previously, with me alone, Stella could land within centimeters of the designated spot. However, when I was strapped into the space capsule, Stella was in her bird space suit, and grabbed her handle inside the capsule, the landing location was no longer that precise. In Nevada, the capsule was 1.9 meters above the ground, and 2.3 meters from the center spot; and for this return trip, the measurement globe said that the bottom of the capsule was 2.4 meters from the water surface, and 2.8 meters from the center of the designated landing spot."

Stella pecked on Godfather's ear, and croaked.

"I know it is difficult." Godfather petted Stella. "We need to practise."

Draco was a bit surprised, for he didn't think Godfather was such a pet person, and Godfather had never shown so much patience for him. During the private sessions, even though Godfather had treated him much better than any Slytherin in the Potion classroom, Draco still had experienced quite some snide remarks.

Godfather wordlessly checked the space capsule for any damage and water leaks, and said: "We need to improve the wand holding sheath on my spacesuit - my wand almost fell out when the capsule hit ground in Nevada. The moisture adjustment charms in it might be malfunctioning, for it felt very dry inside the spacesuit. And by the way, Draco, where did your father get his gloves? I wonder how his gloves can transduce magic so well, while the gloves on the spacesuit can't."

Draco supposed Godfather was also curious in how the snake-headed cane could transduce magic so well. While outsiders were present, Draco only replied: "Twilfitt and Tattings. The Crimp family has been making quality magical accessories for generations. I have quite a few pairs of gloves from them, and I'll have a house-elf bring several pairs here now."

Godfather nodded in thanks, and continued to check on the parts on the capsule loaded with cushioning spells.

Draco noted to himself that he should order several more pairs of gloves for Godfather from Twilfitt and Tattings - actually, he should order two sets of clothing for every occasion from Twilfitt and Tattings for Godfather. Draco quickly summoned parchment and quill from his pouch, and wrote down the orders, and gave the note to his new personal elf, Sparky. On the other hand, Draco dearly hoped that the Malfoys wouldn't become nothing but a deep pocket in their conspiracy.

Then, Harry explained the phoenix animagus idea to Godfather.

Godfather seemed to be quite excited about it, and nodded to Harry's Dad: "Yes, a great idea indeed, Professor Verres-Evans. It would definitely be very handy in space. I should try to see if I am capable of adopting a new form."

Godfather then paused, as if trying to remember something, and then said: "There is another little-written nuance in animagus transformation, that people may be able to transform only part of their body into their animagus forms. It actually comes from the fact that when people change back to their human form after their first successful animagus meditation, most people have some parts of their bodies still in animal forms. It is possible to consciously produce this phenomenon."

Harry opened his mouth, as if he wanted to ask something, but he closed his mouth again.

Draco remembered that Godfather seemed to know what was happening behind him lately. One year ago, Draco had seen Gryffindors silently making nasty gestures toward Godfather behind his back in corridors, but Godfather didn't catch them every time. Draco supposed, Godfather learned or perfected this bat-related trick during the past year, when he was away pursuing power.

"I can teach you all this trick later." Godfather sternly examined the facial expressions of Harry, Hermione, and Draco, and changed the subject with a straight face, "Oh, and the capsule seems to be in good condition from my spells. I'll check for any gas leakage with the Muggle equipment."

Harry pulled out several strange-looking objects that Draco couldn't fully understand from the experimental equipment pouch, and asked."Professor Snape, do you think Stella would be able to haul the entire capsule out from rocks, in case the capsule ended up landing several meters below the ground?"

This was another moment when Draco found himself stupid. Harry's question was quite obvious retrospectively, but Draco had never thought of it, even after the capsule ended up several meters below water.

"Stella, can we give it a try?" Godfather asked.

Stella threw Harry an annoyed look, and cawed in agreement.

And as if getting beaten by Harry's intelligence was not enough, Hermione's father asked another seemingly obvious question: "Professor Snape, I'm still not so sure about how phoenix transportation works. Do we need to check for possible gas loss after phoenix transportation? I mean, when Stella takes the space capsule, does she also take the majority of air inside it? I guess, the capsule not getting soaked when it landed in water was a good sign, but we need to be sure."

Then, everyone with some Muggle science background - which was everyone besides Draco - began planning the improvements needed, and what the next set of experiments should be.

After Draco cooled down a bit from the initial sense of defeat, he found the fact that Hermione's father was able to ask a question that he hadn't thought of was actually good news: Hermione's father isn't as smart as Harry. Therefore, his advantage over me on this kind of stuff must come from learning science.

The young Lord Malfoy silently let out a breath, and decided: I really need to learn Muggle science well. Moreover, I wonder if Muggles have developed the science thing on politics.