I Know Places: A Dramione Fanfic

Chapter One: Deals, Omissions, and Pills

When he calls she comes. He isn't her first choice, but now he is her only choice. So it's with a searing pain on her left forearm that she wakes in the night in the Gryffindor girl's seventh year dorm. Hermione was dreaming about her parents before he summoned her. She couldn't remember what about, but it was a good dream. They were alive in it, but that's all she can remember. It's more than she can say now about them when the cold reality of their deaths hit her as hard as her feet hit the cold stone floor.

Another searing pain on her left forearm. How original of him to place the beacon there of all places. She can tell he is getting impatient as the mark starts to burn more intensely, and he is also getting on her last nerve. But this means he must have found something. Hermione hurried across the room, Lavender's snores echoing in the dorm. She grabbed her wand from the mountain of unread books she hadn't even cracked open this summer. Her arm burned again, and she stifled a groan.

They had just gotten back to Hogwarts three weeks ago, but that was the first time he called on her since their original deal was set in place. It was at the start of term feast when it happened. Her arm had seared in pain, and she gasped involuntarily dropping her fork.

"Are you okay Hermione?" Ginny asked immediately across from her, taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

"Fine…headache." She mumbled back, looking anywhere but the Slytheirn table. She started to immediately break into a cold sweat. A bit because of the nerves, but mostly because of the pain. He told her the first cut would be the deepest, but she didn't expect it to bite so hard.

"Are you sure?" Ginny looked at her sympathetically. "I know it's hard. With Ron and Harry not here…but you still have us…"

Ron…Harry…Hermione's eyes swell with tears just hearing their names. But she is pressed with a new resolve.

"Do you need to leave the feast early?" Neville asked concerned.

"Yes. Um…hospital wing. See you two tomorrow." Hermione had leapt up and half walked, half ran to the nearest bathroom. She thought she'd have more time before she was summoned. She had locked herself in the nearest stall, pulled down her sleeve, and examined her new scar.

It shone bright black in the dim candlelight. He had said it'd be somewhere on her body, but the bastard had basically made her a version of his own dark mark. The shiny black cursive 'D' gleamed in her eyes, as his voice suddenly hit her ear freezing her in place.

"You're really going to have to control your reaction to this. Mine doesn't hurt at all."

Hermione threw her sleeve back down just as the door to the stall opened. Standing there just as impossibly good looking as he was this summer was Draco Malfoy.

He looked even better in his uniform. Sleeves pushed up to his elbows, tie hanging loosely around his neck. Cocky smirk. He was showing her his own forearm, which bore the dark mark, as well as a shiny black cursive 'H'.

"Like my 'D', Granger?" He asked suggestively, eyebrows wiggling.

"Go to hell." Hermione said trying to slam the door back in his face. But he was quicker, and caught it before it closed, slipping his way in.

His chest was on her chest. If she didn't dislike him so much, she might have enjoyed occupying this small space in the stall with him. Then he opened his mouth, and she just wanted to punch him.

"We have to stop meeting like this." He murmured in her ear seductively.

Hermione ignored the fleeting feeling of excitement in her stomach as she tried to remember that she loathed him. She was here for two people only, and neither of them were Draco Malfoy.

"Gross." She pushed him as far as she could away from her. "Where are we going tonight?"

He told her where he wanted to go, she showed him the way, they went, and after they were done they woke up in their separate common rooms, went to class the next day, and acted like nothing happened. Like they weren't playing with fire.

Hermione gripped her arm in frustration. It didn't hurt as much as that first night, but it wasn't very pleasant. She stared disdainfully down at the shining 'D', as she ripped a new pair of jeans from her trunk and shoved them on. She grabbed Harry's invisibility cloak as well, her fingers running over the fabric memories bursting to the surface. She shoved them down. Now wasn't the time. Lastly, she grabbed her sheath and placed the sword in it. Bring it on.

Hermione wasn't sure where she was headed, but she imagined he'd find her if she just made her way towards Hogsmead. Down the flights of stairs, out the doors of the Great Hall. She was passing the lake when she heard him.

"No need to be in such a hurry."

Hermione whipped around, and saw him standing a few paces behind her.

"The sooner we leave the grounds the sooner we can get back. Also, stop sneaking up on me like that!" She snapped at him, and kept walking at a determined pace away from him.

Draco rolled his eyes, and Hermione let out a growl of frustration, and refused to turn around again until they reached the gates.

"You should really be more careful. McGonagall's headmistress now, but not for long. Either way you know we shouldn't be seen together. Both sides could become suspicious."

"I don't care if my side knows" She said viciously. "You're the one who wants it kept secret."

"To protect my family!" He snarled at her. "You'd take that risk too if you had any left!"

Hermione stared at him in disbelief. The pale moon shinned overhead basking in Draco's face which was now filled with regret.

"Low blow, Granger. Sorry. Let's just get this over with."

Hermione wanted to punch him in his very punchable face, but she kept her fist to herself.

They were standing just outside Hogwarts grounds, and she reached out a hand grudgingly refusing to look at him as he grasped it.

"Where to?" She asked pretending to be bored. Her heart scraped inside her chest, and her other hand gripped her wand as hard as she could.

"Same place."

Hermione let herself get lost in Draco's side along apparition. Her head throbbed painfully as they squeezed themselves to their destination. She couldn't believe she got herself in this mess.

Hermione had only been home from Hogwarts for two weeks when her parents were murdered, and she was tortured. The Death Eaters found her home, and murdered her parents first. Then they told her what they had done to Harry and Ron. Both dead.

"I'm not sure what you expect to get out of me now. You have no leverage. You've killed everyone I care about." She had fallen to the floor then with the next cruciatus.

Bellatrix was her main torturer.

"How many have you found? Where were Potter and Weasely keeping the locket? What have you done with the sword of Gryffindor?"

She was on the brink of death when they left her lying next to her parents dead bodies. Then Draco Malfoy showed up, and kind of saved her life. He also kind of ruined it too so she tried not to give him too much credit.

It was Draco who came into her house that night after the Death Eaters had left. Impossibly handsome Draco. Hermione was so delirious from torture she thought she must be dreaming. He had been dressed all in black, bright blonde hair shining through underneath his hood. His face a mask of shock.

"Hermione?" He asked breathlessly.

It was the first time he'd ever used her name, and Hermione could do nothing but roll to her side and cough out blood.

"Shit." He had muttered under his breath. Then he used a few spells to clear her airways and her head. A few bones were still broken, but her mind was clear.

"Get away from me." Hermione trembled trying to crawl backwards from him.

"I need your help." He said seriously.

Hermione would have laughed if her lungs would give her the capacity to do so. Instead she let out a wheezy "fuck you."

"Still some fight in you? That's all I need to hear."

"They took it all." She whispered painfully. There wasn't any fight left in her. Parents dead. Harry dead. Ron dead. Draco should have done the nice thing and let her die.

Instead he stared at her, he stared at her dead eyes, and her dead heart, and he knew she had given up.

"Just leave me alone." Hermione sighed, barely audible at the time.

"What if they were alive?" Draco whispered.

Hermione's heart had leapt with a small bit of hope.

Draco's eyes shone hard with resolve in the dim light of her living room.

"They're alive Granger. And I can help keep them that way if you can help me."

Hermione nodded, and that was how it all began.

How she came to be swirling in time and space with Draco Malfoy in the middle of the night when she was supposed to be asleep in bed at Hogwarts.

They landed on their feet, and Hermione tore her hand away from his immediately.

The front of number 12 Grimmauld Place was as dark and depressing as ever.

"Ladies first." Draco gestured towards the steps in between number 11 and 13.

Hermione showed him a finger in response.

"Touchy." Draco smirked, as Hermione led them inside once more.

As soon as the door shut they were in total darkness, and Hermione immediately set to work turning off all the intruder alerts with her wand.

Draco made to go upstairs but Hermione grabbed his robe and shoved him against the wall. It was hard because he was so much taller than her, and weighed a lot more, but she had the feeling he was letting her do it which only pissed her off more.

"Why are we here again? There's nothing here!" She growled at him.

Her words only seemed to amuse him. "Couldn't wait to get me up against a wall could you Granger?"

"You. Infuriate. Me." She said enunciating each word. "Tell me what we are doing here again! We checked every room last time. Nothing."

"I was thinking about what you said last time." Draco began, and Hermione release her grip on him slightly. "About how it was too bad Kreacher wasn't here so we could ask him about it. I was hoping he might be hiding here. Maybe we could look for him and ask him a few questions about the locket."

Hermione let go of Draco completely.

"He's not here." She said crestfallen.

"Why not? He wouldn't go back to Bellatrix would he? No one in my family has mentioned it."

"No…no…" Hermione suddenly felt very cold, and walked down the hall into the kitchen. She cast her wand at the fireplace and it immediately came to life.

"How do you know he won't be here then?" Draco asked softly, going to sit beside her at the table.

The place held so many memories for her. The summer before her fifth year, all the Weasley's, Sirius, Lupin, The Order coming in and out. It was hard to be here again.

"Sirius Black was Harry's Godfather." She said quietly.

"I know…I mean I heard the rumors after Black's death."

Hermione squirmed uncomfortably as she always did when talking about Harry and Ron with Draco. It didn't feel right. Even though they were alive, and she and Draco were helping each other it still didn't feel right. But he had to know.

"When Sirius died, he left Harry everything. This house, as well as Kreacher." She took a deep breath. "When you asked me to take you to The Order's old headquarters I took you here, and you asked if it was safe, and I told you it was. This place is Harry's. It's protected because he owns it."

She looked up at Draco who suddenly looked very fearful.

"We should leave."

"Why?" Hermione asked alarmed.

"If Kreacher's not here, and we've searched every bit of this house not too long ago, then it doesn't make sense to be here."

He was suddenly standing, his expression controlled from fear to annoyed. Hermione was confused. What had she said that upset him?

Draco ran his hand through his hair.

"Don't you want to know where Kreacher is?" She asked exasperated.

"Jesus Hermione!" He growled. "Not now! Let's just get out of here!"

"Why!" She yelled back frustrated. "We were here just a few weeks ago! Everything was fine."

"I just-I'd really like to leave." He said finally, and so seriously that Hermione stormed past him and out the door.

"This was such a waste of time." She muttered holding out her hand again for him to take.

"Sorry." He said quietly as he grasped her hand, and they were sent back just outside the gates of Hogwarts.

When they were on their feet again Draco pulled out his wand and quickly looked around in a predatory stance.

"What now?" Hermione asked annoyed.

"Get behind that tree. Now."

His voice was so forceful and demanding, she didn't think twice. She ran the few steps to the edge of the forest and threw herself behind a tree.

"Draco." The voice of Severus Snape whipped its way through the wind and hit her right in the heart.

No. Way.

"Why are you out here?" Snape continued, sounding suspicious.

"Fancied a drink." Draco said so casually that Hermione almost believed him. "Why are you here?"

"You're looking at the new headmaster. The Dark Lord's orders."

"Congratulations." Draco replied, and Hermione had a hard time telling by the tone of his voice if he meant it or not.

"Yes well, I'd hate for my first duty to be reprimanding you for drinking, and sneaking out of Hogwarts. Shall we head up to the school before anyone sees?"

"Great." Draco said, and Hermione definitely could hear the sarcasm in his voice now.

Their voices faded as they walked into the grounds and up the trail towards the castle.

Hermione stayed back longer than she needed to. She was actually contemplating getting a drink herself.

Why had Draco wanted to leave Grimmauld place so suddenly? They spent hours there just a few weeks ago, he didn't have any concern of their safety then. Only when she said that Harry owned the place…

Something was suspicious about it, but Hermione couldn't wrap her mind around it, and anyway, thinking of Harry hurt.

She decided to grab a damn drink anyway, and she made her way to the three broomsticks. Just as she was passing by, she saw Hagrid in the window.

Better not, she thought. She had been avoiding him since she'd been back. As well as just about everyone else who were friends with Harry and Ron. It was too hard to be around people who thought they were dead. She wanted desperately to tell them all they were not, but she knew it must be kept a secret.

She decided to go a bit further down to the Hogs Head. She wrapped her cloak tightly around her sides, making sure the sword was covered when she entered.

There were about eight other patrons in the bar when she entered. No one stood out though, and she pulled up a chair at the bar and ordered a Fire Whiskey.

Hermione never drank before this summer, but circumstances being what they were, she just needed something to take the pressure off.

"Need something to take the pressure off?" A voice said behind her.

"Christ are you using occlumency on me? Get out!" She said annoyed, as a man in his late thirties slid on the seat beside her.

"Everyone's in The Head for the same reason luv. We all want to escape something."

"What do you have in mind?" She asked wearily.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bright gleaming white pills that felt out of place in the dingy room.

"What do they do?" She looked at them a bit more intrigued.

"They make you forget…for a bit."

"How much?" Hermione asked intently.

"First few are free." The man smiled his yellow toothy grin and left six of the pills on the bar. "You know where to find me if you want more."

They could help her sleep a little more easily. The stress of being Harry and Ron's only hope of escape, as well as being stuck with Draco Malfoy on this stupid horcrux destroying mission was keeping her up at night. Draco wanted Voldemort gone too, and he knew she knew something about how to get it done. It's why they made the deal in the first place. Draco would spy on the Death Eaters, try to find out where they were keeping Harry and Ron, and in return he would be allowed to help her destroy horcruxes.

They were actually both benefits for her. Malfoy gave her information on Harry and Ron's whereabouts and well beings as he found them out, and in return she got an extra hand in the horcux finding and destroying mission. She just wished it didn't have to be Malfoy's hand.

His strong, muscular, stupid hand.

To forget for a few hours? Sounded wonderful.

Hermione took two of the pills and washed them down with her shot of Fire Whiskey.

Everything burned on the way down.