Disclaimer time - ok . . .blah, blah no, i do not own Draco, Hermione or any other characters you may recognize, if i did the movies would get far more interesting, trust me. those you don't recognize, such as they are, are mine. if you'd like to use, please just let me know. this is a newly edited, but still unbeta-ed chapter, because before i can update it, which i am working, i have to clean up a lot of the story, mainly because it's driving me nuts. i began this story long ago & it more than shows. hopefully, with corrections it will be even better.

Chapter 1 – Trying to Cope

Clenching the cloak tighter around her body, Hermione wandered aimlessly through the hallways of Hogwarts, before finally slipping out a door. Despite the fact she was wearing Harry's Invisibility cloak, she still couldn't resist looking back over her shoulder as she walked out towards the Forbidden Forest, taking care to avoid Hargid's house. After all, old habits are hard to break.

After a few minutes, she took the cloak off and spread it on the grass, before laying down to watch the night sky. These were the only few hours she had to herself lately, since Harry and Ron died.

"Dead," the word slipped through her lips in a harsh whisper. It's been a month, and it was more than long enough for her to finally say it aloud. It's not going to change, she laughing bitterly to herself.

Ever since that night, Hogwarts has been too bloody claustrophobic. Everybody from her classmates, friends and teachers had been walking on eggshells around her and Hermione knew they're all waiting for her to breakdown. For the most part, they probably meant well, but little did they realize that she broke down a little more each night. Between various potions, she managed to keep herself on the right side of sanity, which was more difficult that one might think, given the fact that everyone was anticipating her completely losing it.

From an objective standpoint, Hermione assumed that it was probably a logical conclusion, even as she resented the implications. On the other hand, she just wished that they'd be less obvious about their suspicions.

It was a fucked up situation, when she really thought about it. Given who Harry was, she would have thought that the school, indeed the wizarding world as a whole, would have been united in their grief. Instead, after the initial shock, it was like the world just moved on.

If it had just been Ron, then she could have understood, not that she didn't care for him, of course. Despite how much of a prat he could be on occasion, he was still her friend, but other than his friends and family and his status as Harry's friend, he wasn't a public figure. But Harry was a different story.

Hermione remembered when the three of them would walk through Diagon Alley and everyone treated him like a hero. Other than the odd howler she got here and there, after the first week, it was as if the world at large had forgotten him . . . both of them for that matter. It was weird.

Hermione couldn't get the contrast between Harry & Ron's death as compared to Lady Di's last year out of her mind. The stark difference between the muggle world's reaction as opposed to the wizarding world was . . . startling, to say the least.

And that didn't even take into consideration, the reaction of everyone at Hogwarts. Sure, everyone was a little more subdued that usual and Dumbledore had given a speech like he did after Cedric had died, but that was the largely the extent of it. It was a little more than disturbing to her, but then again, what did she know? Socialization was one area that she even she had to admit wasn't her strongest forte. Harry and Ron had been the popular ones, after all. Ron was the one people had liked for himself, strange as that seemed to her, but than again the two of them had always clashed to an extent, whereas Harry was more famous or infamous, however the press was treating him that particular year.

Out of everyone it seemed that the people who missed Harry and Ron most were her, Dobie and Neville, but she wound up supporting them, rather than having someone she could lean on. The professors, Sirius and the Weasley's, in particular, had reacted uncharacteristically, even coldly towards her. Then again, perhaps she was being needy as Ginny accused her of being last week.

It was just so hard for her to judge anymore.

In her darker moments, she wondered if anyone would have even paused at all, if she had been the one to die instead of them. The selfishness of such thoughts never failed to shame her, but nonetheless, she couldn't entirely suppress them either. It wasn't that she had been friends with them, because of their popularity, no matter what anyone had accused her in the past, but the way everyone for seemed to be okay with their deaths made Hermione doubt herself.

In studying history and being friends with Harry, she knew all too well that standing apart from the majority, didn't necessarily mean you were in the wrong, but even at her most independent, she had always either Harry, Ron, or one of her teachers in her corner.

This time was different. This time she stood alone. She just wasn't sure how much longer, she'd be able to stay on her feet.

In retrospect, it seemed so strange that the only person she was able to deal with turned out to be Malfoy, of all people. He was hostile as ever, but as bizarre as it was, she welcomed it. Draco Malfoy, who still insulted her at every opportunity, was the person she could tolerate, because he was the only one she could count on to act normally.

Idly, Hermione, guessed she could just add it to the list of the unimaginable that seems to keep happening. Like tonight, despite the fact that she used to be such a stickler for the rules and now having made prefect, she was sneaking out after hours, every night. Or finding the bodies of her two best friends --- no, she reminded herself that she was not even going there now.

The nightmares were bad enough, after all.

She knew what she was supposed to do, how the healthy thing would be to talk it out to someone, anyone. How could she possible forget when everyone from Ginny to Lavender, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and even Snape, keeps offering? But what could she or anyone else for that matter say that wasn't already obvious, particularly when it obvious that they blamed her for it?

Hermione did blame herself, because she wasn't there, knowing it was survivor's guilt didn't make it suddenly go away. Harry and Ron had deliberately slipped out without her, but that didn't excuse her for not picking up on the fact that they were planning something. She should have seen it and, if she couldn't have stopped, then she damn well would've gone along with them.

Of course, it was one thing to blame herself and two of them for their stupidity, what she couldn't really understand was why everyone else blamed her. It just didn't make sense. Something was terribly wrong about this whole thing, but she couldn't quite figure it out.

Talking about it wasn't going to make that go away and certainly not with them. She'd already made that mistake once and she had no intentions of repeating it again. Perhaps, she was being paranoid, as McGonagall had suggested, of course she had used those exact words, but Hermione knew very well, what her head of house had meant. She had nothing more to say to anyone who was going to dismiss her concerns out of hand.

They're dead and nothing anyone says or does is going to bring them back or explain it away. Platitudes were useless and their pitying sympathy was wasted on her. Hermione was sick to death of people saying it was going to be ok, because seriously . . . how could it ever be okay, again?

Sighing, she picked herself back up and grabbed the cloak - his cloak.

It was time to go back like a good little Gryffindor and dig out tomorrow assignments, because - because Merlin forbid Hermione Granger didn't hand in a homework assignment, right?

"Right?"

Her voice wavers, while she waits for a response that never comes. Truth be told, she didn't know anything anymore and cared even less. Her grades were still pretty good, not too hard, considering she had written up her assignment far enough in advance to just show up and she could the work in her sleep. None of it registers, of course, but not much does anymore.

She didn't even bother to wear the cloak on her way back, practically daring Filch to bust her . . .

Walking back to the school, she was oblivious to the figure, following behind at a safe distance, silver-blonde hair, glinting in the moonlight.

Draco followed her all the way to the Gryffindor common rooms, carefully keeping to the shadows, until she gave the password and entered, before he turned away to go to down to the dungeons.

Another night and all is well at Hogwarts, he rolled his eyes. How can those Gryffindor idiots could be so bloody unaware that their own prefect is on the verge of collapse is something he would never understand. In the privacy of his own thoughts, he grudgingly admitted that losing Potter and Weasley was a blow to the entire school, Slytherins included, but losing Granger is an unacceptable loss. He laughed to himself, looks like it's Draco to the rescue and since it is Hermione, this is a rescue mission that he was definitely planning on enjoying.

Walking back to the Slytherin common room, Draco smirked, who would have guessed that by looking at Granger six years that she'd grow up to be so beautiful, not to mention so brilliant.

It was terribly ironic that the only person in this school worth talking would turn out to be a muggle-born Gryffindor, who hung out with Potter and Weasley, he mused to himself.

He had first noticed her in first year, even before the sorting, but he had recognized nearly instantly that she was muggle-born and knew that she would be off-limits for some time to him, so he'd kept his distance. The fact that they had been sorted into opposing houses was merely the icing on the cake. So much for his hopes that she might turn out to be a Ravenclaw, although it was still would have nearly impossible, he might had an inkling of hope, but the ways things turned out, impossible was an understatement.

So he had resigned himself to biding his time and then bloody Voldemort resurfaced, for which by the way, he blamed entirely on Potter. And what a fucking debacle that had turned into . . . Time and time again, boy blunder had failed to follow through, before finally vanishing in typical spectacular fashion.

Draco was all too aware that he had run out of time and more to the point, she had run out of time. With Potter and the Weasel MIA, she was a glaringly obvious reminder of Voldemort's past failures, not to mention a prominent muggle-born, neither of which was exactly a secure position at the moment. The past month had been a quiet one as the deatheaters and the rest of the wizarding world alike were scrambling about trying to figure out the ramifications of Potter's disappearance and apparent death, but that wouldn't last for much longer.

Draco had his suspicions, of course, but no hard proof, one way or the other. Either way, Granger was a walking target, which only made the situation more puzzling. As the lone surviving member of the so-called "golden trio," he would have figured that the Gryffindors and the school as a whole would have closed ranks, but on the contrary, they seemed to have cut her loose. That fact alone made him apprehensive, because something was coming down and if he didn't miss his guess, it would be happening sooner, rather than later.

Reaching the Slytherin common room, he absently gave the password, "Sex Pistols," his own private joke that failed to lighten his mood. Wary grey eyes scanned the room automatically and he exhaled, seeing the room was empty, before continuing on to his own room. It was late enough already and having made his decision, he had to decide how best to implement that preferable wouldn't get either of them killed.

TBC

Ok . . . again this story is in the process of being edited/updated. new chapters will be coming out fairly soon. in between writing this, i've had a fire – lost everything, some personal disasters, family deaths and more than a few computers. i lost my mailing list long ago.

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