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Hermione walked in on Narcissa snoozing loudly in her bed. The blonde's legs were wrapped around her blankets, but Hermione could still see the blackened look of them through cracks in their cover. If she didn't figure out how exactly to cure this spell, the elder witch was in for a world of uncertainty.

Before today's incident, Hermione had been sure that everything was going well and no problems would arise. But she had been oh so terribly wrong. If she didn't figure out the spell soon, Narcissa was going to die.

"Okay Narcissa!" She whispered to the dark space, "Let's figure this out!" She approached the sleeping women and began to assess all the damages, praying she hadn't missed something. Her wand glowed a deep red when it reached Narcissa's toes. The Gryffindor's brow furrowed in confusion, her toes had been fine every time she had been examined up to this point.

"Lucius…" Whispered Narcissa in her sleep. Hermione felt her heart break for the witch lying before her. She couldn't even imagine how it would feel to lose the only love of your life, but then again she had no idea what it felt like to find the only love of your life. William and Ron had obviously not been the one.

Her vine wood wand began buzzing in her hand and sent a shock of electricity up Hermione's arm. "Ouch!" She exclaimed, looking down at the now dropped wand on the floor. It had never buzzed like that before. She picked it up off the floor and set her eyes back on Narcissa. Except the Slytherin no longer looked human. Her entire body was now shriveled and black and her eyes were a dark crimson staring up at something that no one else could see.

"I will live on." Voldemort's high voice sliced through the air. Hermione's wand dropped once more to the ground.

"Narcissa wake up!" Hermione began shaking her violently and she could feel confused tears ready to pour down her cheeks. It had sounded just like him…but it couldn't be. He had been dead for four years…he couldn't hurt anyone else.

"Hermione?" Her eyes now back to their signature blue, "what on earth are you doing?" Narcissa's body was no longer black; except for her stomach, and she looked down right confused.

"You…you don't remember what just happened Mrs. Malfoy?" Hermione backed up a couple paces from the bed.

"I was sleeping! And I told you to call me Narcissa," the woman clicked her tongue impatiently, "Honestly I thought we had gotten past that at least."

"Mrs. Malfoy," she replied, "I need to go to the part of the Manor where Voldemort resided. Immediately."

"We blocked that part of the house off years ago. You'd need an auror to unlock the spells that seal it off…" The skinny woman sat up in her bed with suspicious eyes locked onto Hermione. "Why do you need to get there?"

The brunette bit her lip and whipped around to speed walk out of the room. "No time to explain. I need to go call Harry." She mumbled just loud enough from Narcissa to hear.

"Harry? As in Harry Potter?" She yelled after the frantic healer. There was no reply given.


He had been just heading off to bed after a late night at the Ministry when Hermione's voice sounded through the living room. "Harry! Harry James Potter you get your arse down here this instant!" Hermione was surrounded by the green flames of his fireplace with a crazed look in her usually calm brown eyes.

"'Mione what the hell?"

"I don't have time to explain Harry. Just get over to the Manor." She reached to pull her head out but then stuffed it back in, "And be nice when you get here!" Her bushy mane disappeared and Harry sent a wistful glance up at the staircase where his sleeping fiancé was waiting for him.

"Hermione I swear…" mumbling under his breath, Harry threw some more powder into the floo and spun off to the Manor.

His head kept spinning when his feet touched foreign stone floor. Slowly the surroundings stabilized and he looked dumbfounded up at his best friend sitting on the couch with Draco Malfoy.

"Nice to see you Potter." He put on a smile and stood to shake Harry's hand, "If you have any idea what she's on about, please do enlighten me."

"We don't have time to enlighten anyone! Honestly Draco what do you think this is about?" Harry raised his eyebrows at Hermione,

"When did he become Draco?"

"Wait, this isn't about my mother?" Both boys spoke at the same time.

"A couple weeks ago and yes." She rushed out of the room calling after both of them, "Draco I need you to show me the blocked off part of the house. Harry I need you to break through it." The blond wizard sprang into action first, tension growing in his eyes; Harry followed a second later with an alarmed face set into his usually calm features.

"Hermione!" The Slytherin called down the hallway after her, "It's this way." Even in the situation, he couldn't help but smirk at the witch's reddening cheeks.

"Right…I knew that." Both Gryffindor's chased after the pureblood for another couple of minutes until they reached complete blackness with waves of red in it. "Is that the block spell…?" Hermione reached out her hand to touch it and flinched when it shocked back at her. "It almost looks…alive."

Harry whipped out his wand, "I know how to dismantle it, but first," he turned towards his friend, "Hermione you've gotta tell us what's going on here."

She lowered her bushy hair and spoke to the ground, "I saw him…In her. It was so…" the sentence tapered off.

"Hermione," Draco spoke softly, "Who did you see?"

"Voldemort, he's inside of her. I think. I don't know." She looked up into Harry's brilliant green eyes for comfort, "I need to get in there to trace if a horcrux spell was used." Her brown eyes were avoiding Draco's face at all costs. Harry's jaw was set and he grabbed Hermione and pulled her into his arms.

"We'll get in there 'Mione. And everything is going to be ok." He whispered soothingly into her ear. Draco's pale complexion had drained of the little color it already held and he was looking at the barrier with slight apprehension. Hermione pulled away from her friend's comforting arms and turned to face the pale white wizard standing a few feet away.

"It's going to be ok Draco. I won't let her die." She reached out and placed a comforting hand on his arm, "I promise." He turned his grey eyes onto her face and silently begged her to make sure everything would turn out right. "I won't let you down." She semi-smiled and then embraced the rigid man, holding him close. "Everything will turn out perfect." She muttered into his chest, praying that her words were true.

Harry cleared his through uncomfortably, "So uhh, we should get this over with…" he aimed his wand at the barrier, "Rumpere claustra!" A jet of purple light shot out of the holly wand and burst through the blackness. Lights erupted to life on the hallway walls and portraits sprang to life, scowling at the 'filth in their presence'.

"Just ignore them." Mumbled Draco. He cast a silencing spell but the portraits murmurs did not cease, "They're charmed to never shut the hell up."

The trio continued down the eerie hallway until they reached a door with spellotape in an 'x' across it. "What's in there?" Asked Hermione hesitantly.

"That," Draco took a deep sigh, "Is the room where you were guys were taken when umm." He stopped talking and looked at the petite witch, whose eyes were watering at the memory.

"We don't have to go in there do we?" Her voice sounded scared and shaky.

"No," the blonde's eyebrows set, "You never have to go in there." He continued down the hallway with Hermione and Harry trailing a little further behind this time.

"Harry you can go now." Whispered Hermione in a voice she clearly thought Draco couldn't hear.

"No," he interrupted, "I want Potter to close this back up when we're done. I never want to come down this wing again. Not until it's redone." Harry nodded his head solemnly at his past foe and put a protective around Hermione, who was still shaking a bit. "Where did you want me to take you exactly?" Draco's voice drifted back to the Gryffindor's.

"Wherever Voldemort spent most of his time." At the mention of the dark lords name, the portraits began to hiss, and spat at the muggleborn witch. It wasn't until 'mudblood' was whispered by an old man that the Slytherin lost it and whipped around on the portrait with fury in his eyes.

"Do not speak that word in my presence. You have no idea the damage it caused." He snarled before using a charm to pull a curtain over the ancient wizards face. "It's just through this door." His voice perfectly back to normal, Draco pulled open a scarred wooden door and turned on the lights to reveal a gigantic master bedroom with black drapes on every window and a kind of luxurious pet bed in the corner. "This is where he and that retched snake stayed." The revulsion came out clear in his voice.

"Okay," Hermione whispered, she was still taken aback by Draco's reaction to the portrait and a bit off of her game. "I just need to cast a couple of spells to be able to tell if there's any residue from a horcrux making spell or something like it. Luckily the residue of that dark of magic never quite leaves." She whipped her delicate wand around in a fancy manor, whispering complicated spells to herself as Harry and Draco watched.

After a couple minutes, her wand began to buzz and glow red. Her face drained of color before she turned a worried glance onto the boys standing by the door. "That's exactly what my wad did when I tried to figure out what was wrong with Narcissa earlier." She whimpered out.

"What does that mean?" Asked Harry.

"It means Narcissa is keeping something from us. And that spell in her body is no ordinary one." She saw the look on Draco's face and rushed out the next couple words, "It's not a horcrux…but similar. It's almost like a half soul was ripped out. Probably because he didn't have enough to give her a whole one. I don't know yet, but I know I can heal it. I just know it." The blonde wizard's features relaxed considerably at her words.

"Okay, well let's go talk to my mother. She needs to start talking."


After Harry had sealed the barrier back up and said a goodbye to Hermione, Draco led the witch up to his mother's room. The wizard noticed that she was still shaking quite a bit from the encounter with the east wing of the manor.

"Hermione," he tentatively took her dainty hand into his own, "She's not gonna get you. She is gone and is never going to hurt you again." He put a genuine smile on his face to comfort the trembling girl. She met his grin and gave him a quick hug before pulling away a bit awkwardly. She wasn't sure if they were to the point where could just randomly hug him. It had only been two weeks after all. although now that she thought about it, she had been hugging him quite often.

"Thank you." She said as he let go of her, "I'll be fine, really." Her features removed any emotion from them and she turned ahead to face the doors of Narcissa's room. "Now let's go figure out what's going on."

"Why hello dear!" The elder witch greeted Hermione as she walked in. "What are you doing here at nearly four in the morning?" Her smile dropped when her son walked in behind Hermione with an almost angry look on his cool face. "What-what's going on?" Narcissa sputtered.

"Narcissa," Hermione began, "There's something you're not telling us isn't there?" She sat down at the edge of the bed, "Something about Voldemort? Did he do something to you?"

"You don't understand" the lady Malfoy responded, "I couldn't let him. No not my only son. I didn't expect him to be so angry. And I suspected that maybe he had carried out his plan in me…but after four years I thought…" she began muttering nonsense to herself with tears welling up in her bright blue eyes.

"Mrs. Malfoy," said Hermione professionally, "I need you to tell me everything. It's a matter of life and death."


A/N: Sorry it's a lot shorter than previous chapters but I've been super busy and I wanted to update at least so yeah. I hope you all like it! And Please please review! It seriously makes my day! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and read! I just hit 3000 hits and it was so exciting! I appreciate everyone's kind words so much! I don't know when the next chapter will be up...hopefully within a week but I can't make any promises. I have a lot of hard classes right now. Thank again to everyone for reading! :D