A/N: So I have returned to the world of fanfiction, everybody, helloooo! I have been gone for quite some time haven't I? Well, I've got a new story for you! And hopefully I'll finish this one. My others…well, they might just sit there for a while. *shrug* But you never know.

I'm very excited about his one, so tell me what you think! More Dramione…

XXX

Prologue

My Love Will Come Back to Me

"When all of this world is dead and gone,

My love will come back to me;

When all of this world has drowned in tears;

My love will come back to me…"

The woman in the black cloak was very calm as the canoe she sat in silently slid across the black water.

She was on a mission.

"Remember the boy with the lightning scar,

The one who saved us all,

Remember the boy with the lightning scar,

And we shall never fall…"

She was nearly there, and she felt no fear. There was no reason to, was there? If there was ever a time to do it, it would be now. If there was ever a person to do it, it would be her.

"And when that blessed day comes,

When we shall rise like a star,

I shall remember the boy,

The boy with the lightning scar…"

He served the man who had made her life Hell. The man who had killed some of her closest friends that day. That day they were hoarded up like animals and sent to the very place Voldemort had killed his own parents.

Hermione Granger remembered the day well.

He killed them like they meant nothing, although it wasn't a surprise. And the man she was set out to kill murdered, too, although, he did not murder because he believed in something – he murdered out of fear. Which was almost worse, in her opinion.

Harry had barely made it out alive during the Second War that had enveloped the Riddle household, because he was priority. Of course he was. He had to find the last Horcrux so that Voldemort could be destroyed – Nagini, whom Voldemort had put a protective bubble around the basement of the mansion.

She hadn't been there to see it, but Harry had successfully killed the snake. She knew that much. He also killed Voldemort. But she never knew the story – she never got to talk to him afterwards.

There was not much time for rejoicing before Lucius Malfoy rose up. He rose to power like he killed – out of fear.

It was a whirl of scenes – almost like they weren't even strung together, just a collection of stills in her memory. Her laughing and cheering, then looking to the side to see more Death Eaters seemingly coming out of nowhere; the Death Eaters overpowering them, holding them back and shoving them down to their knees, just to reinforce how much lower they were. And they were forced to just sit there as some of their closest friends killed in front of them. Lupin and Tonks were two of the first. Then Percy Weasley. Then Lavender. Then Luna.

She screamed and cried and struggled, but it was no use. They had come so close only to lose.

It was when Ron was killed that Hermione's whole world got flipped upside down. She was always a reasonable person; a clear-headed, morally admirable person. However, seeing the life leave Ron's eyes with just the flick of a wand and a flare of green light seemed to shut something off in her. Or maybe it turned something on.

Hatred filled her heart, red colored her vision, and anger consumed her brain – and it was all for Lucius Malfoy.

She just remembered her instincts completely taking over. She didn't know what came over to her to be able to break the immobile charm that had been put on her, but she easily twisted out of the Death Eater's grip and killed him right on the spot. She didn't even stop to see who it was. She killed another – the Death Eater who had captured Harry from the basement and dragged him in front of an expressionless Lucius Malfoy to be killed. Then she put a shield charm around Harry (who quickly recovered), and then whipped a painful, searing curse at the Death Eater holding Neville, and a 'sectumsempra' at the one restraining Ginny.

And they worked at releasing others. Some were killed. A good number escaped. Ginny, Neville and Seamus included, who dragged Harry along, although he of course wanted to stay and help the very few that was left. But there was no hope – if they wanted to live, they had to get out now.

Those were the only people she saw before someone had dragged her out of the crossfire and into one of the long hallways, down to the end, through a trap door in the wall, and down some stone stairs. At the end, there was another door leading to a tunnel.

She had suspected someone like Dean or Luna or Cho, someone from Dumbledore's Army – she was not expecting Draco Malfoy – the father of Ron's killer.

She harshly recoiled from his grip with a cry of anger, disgusted just by his touch. He lashed his hand up to cover her mouth so hard and fast that he had her pressed against the cool stone wall. She breathed heavily and watched him as he gazed up towards where they'd come, listening intently. Then, he looked back at her and asked through gritted teeth, "If you want to live," he whispered raggedly, "You follow me, do as I say, and do not question me."

She shook his hand off her mouth and hissed, "How could I ever trust you?"

"Because I am the only chance you have."

She tried to keep her new-found boiling temper under control, but all she could see in him was Lucius.

However, part of her was still practical and saw that Draco was different from the other Death Eaters. They all seemed to have this odd look in their eye, like they'd been broken inside. But Draco didn't have that. Not yet anyway. And although she had sworn as oath to herself that she would kill his father, she had to admit Draco was not the same man Lucius was.

And if he was trying to help – why not use her resources?

She shoved him off her and thought for a moment, glaring into his deep, cold gray eyes. "Why are you helping me?" she asked a bit desperately, needing answers.

"We really don't have time for this, Granger," he snapped, grabbing her upper arm in a vice like grip. "So I'll repeat myself this once – if you want to live. Follow me."

So she did.

That was a year ago on the mark.

And now she was an assassin in the dark, slithering through the mist on the river on a mission to kill his father.