Authors Note:

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Chapter One: Curiosity

When we are put under stress, our sympathetic nervous system gives us two options: fight or flight. Our brain releases hormones to increase our heart rate so that we can pump more oxygen to our muscles in order to run faster. It dilates our pupils so that we can see more clearly, and increases our blood sugar to fuel our body. When it comes down to it, you are given the same tools regardless of what you decide to do. The decision to run away from your problem is your own, but so is your choice to stay and fight.

There was no such thing as a quiet year at school for Hermione and her two friends. There was always some form of danger and darkness that was looming over their heads. It was a wonder that they were able to make it as far into the school year as December before something happened.

Hermione could feel the warmth in her bones from the butterbeer that she had consumed at The Three Broomsticks before leaving Hogsmeade. She, Harry, and Ron, were on their way on their way back to the castle when they came across fellow Gryffindor Katie Bell. The Gryffindor quidditch player was sprawled out on the snow covered path with her friend crying in hysterics beside her.

"I warned her not to touch it!"

Beside katie laid a crinkled piece of wrapping and a large ornate necklace. Hermione didn't have time to take a closer look at the piece of jewelry, because it was at that time that Katie was thrown in the air by an unseen force. Katie screamed in agony and continued to float in the air for a few minutes before being thrown back down onto the frozen ground. It was only after they were able to get Katie and the necklace back up to the castle to be inspected that they found were told about it's dark nature. Professor Snape inspected both Katie and the necklace himself, and stated that the girl was lucky to still be alive. When the trio were asked if they knew who had done this, Harry claimed that it was Draco Malfoy who had left the cursed necklace that Katie picked up. It was then that Hermiones curiosity about what the blonde wizard was up to began.

The next time that Hermione saw Draco Malfoy was when he was caught lurking around the corridors by Filch outside of where Professor Slughorn was holding his annual party.

Draco struggled against the hold that the caretaker had on him, "Let go of me you squib!"

Filch ignored the student's cruel remark and said, "I found this one lurking in the hallway upstairs. He says that he was invited."

Finally able to shake Flich's hold off of his jacket, Draco straightened his clothes. "Alright, alright! I was gatecrashing!"

By now, everyone at the party had stopped what they were doing to watch the scene that was going on. When Professor Snape took a hold of the situation and dragged Draco out of the room, Harry and Hermione shared a look with each other. They could both feel that something odd was going on between the professor and student. After having Luna distract Slughorn with discussion about Nargels, they were able to sneak away from the party and follow Snape and Draco. By the time they were close enough to hear the two Slytherins, the conversation was over. However, they were able to catch Draco's last trailing remark.

"I don't need your protection! It's my job, he gave it to me!"

When you watch someone break, you are often watching them come to the end of a long and difficult road. In the six years that Draco Malfoy had known Hermione Granger, he had never seen her cry. If he was honest with himself, he would say that he never found that fact surprising. He always thought she was too logical to become emotional over trivial things. That out of anyone she was able to talk her way out of feeling unhappy about a situation. Now he sees that she is just like everyone else.

She had transfigured small yellow birds and was making them fly around the room when he came across her. Her face was still wet with tears. The way she looks, sitting there upset and alone on the stone steps, made him stop and stare at her. She must feel his eyes on her because her head turns to look in his direction. And they stare at eachother, each waiting for the other to speak. He doesn't know what would have happened if he hadn't heard someone coming down the stairs behind her. He doesn't stay long enough to see who it is.

It's Harry that Hermione and Draco hear coming down the steps. If her mind wasn't so full and her heart didn't already ache as much as it did, she would be more curious as to why the blonde wizard had stopped and stared at her without calling her a name or making fun of her for being upset.

Hermione looks up at her friend as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. "How does it feel, Harry? When you see Dean and Ginny together? I know… I see the way you look at her."

Between school, and Ron, and keeping tabs on Malfoy, she can feel herself being spread thinner and thinner. She tells herself that those are the reasons that she snaps and sends her charmed birds after Ron's head when he barges in with Lavender Brown hanging off of his arm. Aside from school, nothing was working out as she hoped it would. Ron was being swooned over by Lavender Brown, and she was no closer to finding out what Malfoy was up to then she was a month ago. Her shoulders are heavy from the weight of it all and she wonders if she would still feel this old and tired if she had stayed out of the magical world.

Harry holds her hand and lets her rest her head on his shoulder as she cried. "It feels like this."

Not far away, in the Astronomy Tower, Draco leaned against a railing of the balcony and looked out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. It had been snowing all day, leaving the grounds covered in a fresh blanket of white snow. He had always felt that snow was a bit sneaky. It could cover the ugliest things and make them look beautiful. It could hide patches of ice, cling to leafless treats, and cover broken homes. The older he became, the more be came to distrust the substance. He wondered if he stood still long enough, if the snow would eventually cover him too.

There are over two-hundred-and-fifty thousand words in the English language. And yet, we can still find ourselves at a loss for words. We can still say the wrong things, and we can still have nothing to say at all. Somehow, there are still not enough words to describe how we feel.

Harry and Hermione were on their way to potions class when he brought up the topic of Draco Malfoy. "That night at Borgin and Burkes, Malfoy was looking at a vanishing cabinet."

Hermione furrowed her brow in concentration, the way she usually did when she was trying to solve a ruins problem. "What would Draco want with a vanishing cabinet?"

"You tell me."

Their conversation came to a halt when they turned the corner and saw Draco Malfoy standing against a wall with Blaise Zebini and Pansy Parkinson. It is only when she is sure that they are out of earshot that she says, "He looks different don't you think? Draco, I mean. Almost ill."

Harry doesn't look back and shrugs, "Who could tell the difference?"

Draco Malfoy had always been rather pale. But now he seemed to always have a bit of a green tinge to his skin, as if he was trying to keep himself from becoming ill. There were bags under his eyes that only showed up after many nights of lost sleep. Even his taunting of other students had been effected. He was still a foul person, but in the recent months it had taken much more to get a rise out of him. All in all, Draco Malfoy was a puzzle.

When Hermione was given a puzzle, she wasted no time on putting it together. And if she wasn't given all of the pieces, she would take them herself.

That evening she and Harry were working on homework together in the Gryffindor common room. It was only when she decided to go to bed that he mentioned something strange to her. "Hermione, I think Malfoy is leaving the castle. I've seen it. Sometimes, he just disappears off the Marauder's Map."

She shook her head, "That's not possible. No one can leave the castle these days. The map's wrong."

"The maps never wrong."

Ever since the incident with the necklace, Hermione had been watching the Malfoy with a closer eye. Harry was already suspicious, and Ron was between the clutches of that blonde bimbo, Lavender Brown, to take much notice in what was going on around him. What Harry said to her, about the map never being wrong, continued to replay in her mind as she laid awake in bed that night. The map had never been wrong before. But she didn't want to feed into Harry's suspicion unless she know she was absolutely right. And in order to do that she needed to have more facts, and that meant research. Which is why Hermione found herself tailing Draco Malfoy on a night that she could have spent working on her Transfiguration essay.

Harry really should learn to hide his invisibility cloak better. After a week of not getting any more information about the cause behind why Draco Malfoy is looking so terrible as of late, she decides to follow him to see where he goes at night. She had overheard Draco blowing off his Slytherin friends after dinner the past few days, saying that he had prefect duties. Hermione knew that this was a lie because he rarely showed up for prefect meetings let alone did his duties. On the first night that she follows him, she gets stuck going the wrong way on the staircases and loses him. It takes her close to another hour to find him again.

When she does find him, he isn't carrying any thing new with him. And he doesn't look any better, if anything he looks even worse. Her mind is racing with all of the possibilities as she runs back to the Gryffindor dormitory. She knows by now that when something seems suspicious it's usually because something bad is going to happen.