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Also, J.K. Rowling owns. The End.
It was the era of darkness. Voldemort's force was getting stronger each day, and the Order of the Phoenix was becoming more and more wary and anxious. The Order had long since split in half during the last battle at Hogwarts. No one knew where the others had gone, but the remaining members had reconvened at 12 Grimmauld Place, the original headquarters for the Order. There weren't many people left. There was the trio consisting of Harry Potter, the chosen one who was critical to their victory, Hermione Granger, the brains behind most of everything, and Ronald Weasley, the one who tried to keep them all together. Then there was Ron's parents, Molly and Arthur, and his 5 brothers (Fred was dead, now) and sister, then Seamus the Irish bloke and his best friend Dean, Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones, the Patil twins, Lavender Brown, Michael Corner, and a few others that played a small part in the Order. Every member was imperative to their cause.
The newest member to their group was Draco Malfoy, a pureblood their age who had signed up as a Death eater in Voldemort's army before changing his mind and fleeing to the Order, begging for mercy. He had become quite adamant in bringing the Dark Lord down, and his passion made the others trust him, albeit warily. Hermione had been one of the few that had opened her arms to him after a good interrogation with Veritaserum. Seeing one third of the Golden Trio embrace him into their force convinced many of the other members to do the same.
Hermione was getting tired of reading book after book on dark spells and curses, but she tried to motivate herself. The more she read, the more prepared they'd be, the more prepared the faster the war would be over, the faster she'd reunite with her parents and the faster she could go back to a semi-peaceful life. Her self-motivating speech worked most of the time, but tonight just wasn't the night.
Hermione hit her head against the butt of her palm before closing her latest read of Dark Curses and the 10,000 Ways to Cast Them. A simple title for a simple book, but so many spells to read over. She couldn't handle it right then. She got up and put the book back in its place in the small library Grimmauld Place possessed. She opened the door and rushed out, eager to get out of the air tainted by dusty tomes. In her haste, she bumped right into Malfoy before she got two feet out the door.
"Er, sorry," she said taking a step back. He just nodded. He didn't speak much anymore. His usual haughty and arrogant speech that had constantly reminded her of her low status in society was long gone along with their childhood rivalry. Hermione closed the door behind her, gave Malfoy a tight-lipped smile in goodbye, and walked off to see where Harry and Ron were.
When she found them, they were in the kitchen playing wizard's chess. Ron was winning by a spectacular mark, but it was nothing new. Harry even looked like he was trying, but to no avail.
"Got your tower," Ron said smugly, and Harry groaned.
"Hi Hermione."
"Hey. Who's winning?"
"I'll give you one guess," Harry muttered, and Hermione smiled.
"Better luck next time against the chess champion," she replied.
"Checkmate," said Ron.
"It's not even worth trying anymore!" Harry said, standing.
Ron grinned. "Sorry, mate. Just can't take me, can you?"
Harry mumbled something unintelligible and turned to Hermione. "So did you get through the tome?"
"I tried, but I needed a break. My eyes are sore and my brain's about to explode."
"No worries, 'mione," Harry said. "We've found all the Horcruxes and we've destroyed them all. Now it's just a matter of getting our army back together before You-Know-Who can strike."
"In other words, don't worry about it. We've got loads of time," Ron chimed in, focused on putting his chess set away.
"You guys don't know that," Hermione chided. "Any day the Dark Lord could attack and—"
There was a sudden commotion outside and the three looked at each other and quickly went out to the dimly-lit foyer to see what it was. The limp body of a dark bloke was being held up by Draco. Other Order members had come out from other rooms to see what was going on.
"Dean Thomas," Ginny exclaimed in surprise.
"He came in just now with a letter," Draco said, his eyes scanning them all. His grey eyes landed on Hermione last and lingered before turning to Harry. "Says it's from the D.A."
Everyone broke out into whispers and Harry snatched the note from a weary Dean. "Thanks so much, mate," Harry said, patting the exhausted boy on the shoulder. "We'll get some good food into you." He turned. "Hermione, find a room for him, will you?" he asked, and she nodded. She turned to Draco and led him to the stairs where he half-carried Dean up.
Hermione opened the door to Seamus' room. "I don't think he'll mind. They were good friends after all," Hermione explained, and Draco nodded. "Put him down there."
Draco carefully deposited Dean's body down onto Seamus' bed and turned to Hermione.
"Should I get Mrs. Weasley to look him over?"
"Probably," she replied and turned to Dean. "You all right, Dean?" All she got was a groan in response. "He doesn't look very well."
"I'll get her," Draco said, and Hermione nodded. They both headed towards the door and both waited for the other to reach for the doorknob first. When neither did, they both reached out a hand and their fingers brushed the solid iron handle and each others' warm skin. Hermione met Draco's intense gaze and bit the inside of her cheek. She retracted her hand.
"Sorry," she murmured, and Draco opened the door.
"Ladies first," he said softly, and Hermione slipped past him and rushed back to Harry. She didn't want to analyse that incident with Draco quite yet.
The Order was all crowded in the hallway and they were all chatting excitedly. Harry was talking with Ron and Arthur and Hermione quickly joined them.
"What did I miss?" she asked.
"Which room did you put Dean in?" Harry retorted.
"In Seamus'. Draco said he'd get Molly to look him over."
"Good."
"Well, apparently the rest of Dumbledore's Army is in Scotland, near Hogwarts. They've been hiding out there since the battle. The letter was from Neville," Arthur told her.
"Who would've thought Neville," Ron added, and Hermione smiled.
"The best of a person comes out in times of need," she said, and her friends agreed.
"Neville thought using an owl would be too suspicious so he decided to send out one of his scouts on foot through the muggle world, which would explain Dean. Since the Dark Lord has taken control of the Ministry, no one can use a Portkey or the Knight Bus without being spotted. And Apparating's definitely out of the question," Harry continued.
"It must've been a tiring journey," Hermione said slowly. "But he looked like he'd been attacked too."
"He might've been, but Dean's a strong duelist. I remember from D.A. training. At least he got here in one piece."
Hermione nodded and saw Molly rushing over to them.
"Did you see Dean?" Hermione asked, and Molly nodded.
"He's got a few scratches and bruises, some internal bleeding, and a twisted ankle, but nothing a few potions can't fix." She looked at her husband. "Are you going to send a reply?"
"Yes, of course," Arthur replied. "We should send it with Dean as soon as possible."
"Good. Now can I just squeeze past you all and get to my cabinets?"
The four obliged and Molly disappeared into the kitchen and reappeared with a handful of potions. She hustled back to the stairs.
"So shall we tell them to come to Grimmauld Place then?" Ron asked.
"Telling them all to come would be dangerous. After all, look at Dean, and he was only one member."
"Right." Ron thought for a moment. "Then I suppose all we can do is make battle plans with them? How exactly would we be able to meet them or talk to them without arousing suspicion?"
"Did they say where they're staying?" Hermione asked.
"They were very vague, but Anthony knows. We'll have to ask him first chance we get. They were taking cautionary measures, I presume." Harry brought the letter back to his face and nudged his round glasses higher up his nose.
"We could start a notebook correspondence. We have one notebook and they have its twin and whatever one writes in one notebook, it shows up in the other. Kind of like Tom Riddle's diary, remember?" Hermione offered.
"Yeah, 'course I do," Harry said. "But we don't have any notebooks like that."
"I'll start my research if you guys can provide the two notebooks."
"I have a few empty ones in my desk," Arthur said. "They're muggle ones though."
"All the better," Hermione said with a smile. "I'll start looking." And she disappeared into the library.
It took two days for Hermione to find anything useful in the Blacks' library, but she finally found some helpful tomes about charms. Dean had told them the other D.A. members were staying underneath Ollivander's now-boarded-up Wand Shop. They had built a tunnel that led to the Great Hall in Hogwarts and their army had grown quite large. There had been some rejoicing over that. Then the next day Molly told them that Dean didn't seem to be recuperating as quickly as she'd thought. That was worrisome. If they couldn't send Dean back, then they'd have to send one of their own. But who? Well, that was Harry's concern. Hermione had to find out how to charm these notebooks.
The library door opened and Hermione looked up to see Draco walk in. He looked surprised to see her there.
"Hello Hermione," he said cordially, gently closing the door behind him.
"Hello Draco."
"Still studying those charms, are you?"
"Yes."
They lapsed into silence. Draco perused through the rows of books as Hermione turned back to her reading. Obedience charms, charming toys, room charms, portrait charms—
"Do you need any help?"
His masculine voice startled Hermione out of her focused thoughts.
"Well, you could look through these books," she said, gesturing to the load of charm books she had acquired. One of them was attempting to flap its cover like wings in an attempt to fly away. Hermione put a heavier book on top of it. "Watch out for that one," she said. "It's mostly about flying charms, but you never know if it'll help or not."
Draco wordlessly took a seat across from her and began poring through the books. In another hour, Hermione sighed, leaned back, and stretched. She felt her back crack and Draco looked up to watch her. Hermione looked at her wristwatch. Four minutes to eleven. "It's getting late," she noted, and Draco nodded. "If we don't find anything in the next half hour I think I'm going to go to sleep." Draco nodded again. "It has been a rather exhausting day." His appraising eyes turned back to his book and Hermione shut her mouth. She never felt fully comfortable when his scrutinising eyes were upon her figure. She turned back to her book.
Another hour passed without Hermione's notice. She had finished looking at the contents of one particularly large tome and blindly reached her hand out for another. She felt a warm hand underneath her palm and she looked up, seeing Draco's surprised expression mirroring hers. Again, it was she that pulled away with a slight blush.
"Sorry," she said, but he nudged the book towards her and took another book from the pile. Hermione sheepishly took the tome and browsed through its contents. A few minutes later, she smiled. "Draco, I think I've found it!" she exclaimed. "Look here. It says that the charm can be cast by one wizard or witch, though it drains one very quickly. It is recommended that two do the charm, blah blah blah; oh!" She fell silent as she and he read the text to themselves.
"Okay, well, it looks like we're going to have to do this together," she said after a moment. Draco nodded. "So we have to perform it," she read, "like this." She did a few twirls with her wand and practised saying the charm once or twice along with Draco before she deemed them ready. She opened both notebooks to the first page and kept them a foot from each other like the book had said.
"Ready?" she asked, and Draco nodded. They performed the charm together, then pointed their wands to their separate pages. The parchment glowed gold before becoming normal again. Hermione retrieved a quill and ink and smiled at Draco before writing on the paper in her flowing script: Hello, Draco. The smile grew on her face when she saw it appear in his notebook.
"Perfect!" she exclaimed. Then she checked the text again. "It's supposed to fade after seven hours. That's wonderful." She smiled at her companion. "Thank you so much for helping me," she said and embraced him. His arms encompassed her, and she felt his large hand slide intimately around her back. As their embrace lengthened, the tension surrounding them became heavy and Hermione felt herself flush in his arms. Her stomach was beginning to knot. She pulled away slowly and looked up into Draco's face. His grey eyes were consuming and Hermione's lips parted involuntarily. His gaze dropped to her mouth and she felt his splayed fingers press tighter against her waist.
Hermione swallowed and moved backwards, slipping out of his arms. "Thank you for your help," she whispered, and grabbed the notebooks and exited the room as quickly as possible without looking like she was fleeing. She didn't want to analyse his behaviour towards her right then.
The notebooks were a success, but the next morning brought a new obstacle. Dean had somehow contracted mumblemumps, making it impossible to send him back, at least for a few weeks. They had to choose a new messenger.
At the Order meeting, Harry asked anyone to volunteer. No one raised their hand. It was dangerous going out nowadays even in the muggle world.
After a long moment of awkward silence, Draco raised his hand. "I'll go."
"But you don't know anything about the muggle world," Seamus interjected, and Draco shrugged.
"Like anyone else but Hermione really does? And you all need her here." That was undeniable. "Besides, no one would expect me to go out into the muggle world to deliver a message of sorts, especially for the Order. Polyjuice potion'll clear that right up, too. And I'm a fairly good duelist. I mean, I'm better than Potter over here, no offense."
"None taken," Harry said through a tight mouth. He hated admitting it. "And I'm okay with it if everyone else is."
Everyone else was okay with it, and so it was settled that Draco would go. He had to be tutored in muggle studies the next two days by Hermione and had to memorise the route by heart. The first day was spent studying maps and the muggle currency and some history that Draco might need to know. By the end of that day, he was pretty well-versed in it and had learnt how to convert knuts and sickles and galleons into pounds. He hadn't been second to Hermione in school for no reason.
The morning of the second day, Hermione woke Draco early. "We're going out," she told him, and he rubbed his eyes sleepily and took the vial of Polyjuice potion she had handed him. When they stepped out into the muggle neighborhood as Eliza Watson and Markus Reynolds, Draco stared at everything they passed like a child, and Hermione had to clasp his hand to make sure he didn't get lost. As the day became brighter, more people emerged, and they kept a tight hold on each others' hands.
"All right, we're going to have to take the bus," she said, stopping at a bus stop. The large double-decker came rumbling by quickly, and Draco was impressed.
"Looks like the Knight Bus," he whispered to Hermione, and she smiled.
"It is still London after all, magical or not."
They rode the bus together all the way to King's Cross Station, and Hermione made Draco pull the cord to get the bus to drop them off at the next stop.
"Now this is the way to the King's Cross Station," she told him. "I'll give you a map. Muggle people are usually friendly enough if you ask them for directions, but don't act suspicious. Try at least." She smiled to show she was joking, and he just nodded. They entered the train station where they bought the tickets. A little ways away from the ticket station, she handed him his ticket. "Now this is where you board and what train you're riding," she said, pointing out the letters and numbers.
"Right," he replied.
"When you get to Glasgow, you're going to take a bus over to Aonach Mòr. When you get there—"
"I take the gondola lift up the mountain and walk to the ruins in the middle of nowhere and ignore all the muggle charms on it. And then Hogwarts will appear since I'm a wizard and I'll know my way to Hogsmeade from there."
"Good. I've taught you well." She smiled at him, and Draco returned it.
They toured the train station some more and Hermione helped him find which boarding dock he was to go to, and they went over all the bus routes online at a muggle internet café nearby. Draco was intrigued by the computers, though a little suspicious of them at first. As they toured around the King's Cross and London, Draco made sure to keep this experience in memory.
After the tour, they came back to Grimmauld Place where they found themselves alone in the foyer. "Be safe now, and don't forget anything," Hermione said, still in the body of Eliza Watson.
"Don't worry," Draco replied, still in the form of Markus Reynolds. "I'll take care of myself."
Hermione smiled and reached up and touched his shoulder. "I worry anyway." She placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. His gaze was absolutely smouldering when she pulled away, and she turned and went to her room, her heart beating rapidly.
Later in the evening, in her own body again, Hermione was putting her clothes away in her wardrobe when someone opened the door. She turned. "Draco?" she asked, perturbed by the way he was striding over. When he reached her, he grabbed her face in pale hands and kissed her. She was shocked, to say the least, but she closed her eyes. They had been playing around this for too long. He kissed her and kissed her gently, his fingers never loosening their hold on her cheeks. He was eager and ardent in his kisses; when he finally pulled away, she was slightly breathless.
"Hermione," he whispered. "You know…that is…I…" His thumb ran across her cheek. She swallowed.
"I know," she said, and he gazed into her face, then let his hands fall to his sides again. He gave her one long look and turned and left her room.
When Hermione went down for breakfast the next morning, he was gone.