Another chapter for you all, more action here and I hope you enjoy it! And I'm sorry in advance for the cliffhanger.

DISCLAIMER: Copyright other people, not me.

'What are you going to do?' Ginny asked. She was perched on the end of Hermione's bed, offering her a cup of hot chocolate.

'I'm going to behave perfectly decently, and he's going to realise that nothing is going happen,' Hermione replied primly.

'Nothing did happen,' Ginny said bluntly. Hermione looked at her questioningly. Ginny rolled her eyes. 'Come on, Hermione. I've talked to you both. You both admit that it was just a kiss, and that there was no emotion on his part. It's been months. Can't you forgive him, even as a friend?'

Hermione rolled over on her pillow. 'It's not the kiss itself. It's that he allowed it to happen. Right after saying that he wanted a future with me.'

'He couldn't exactly have stopped it happening, from all accounts. She jumped him. She's the one you should be worried about. Why did she even want revenge on you in the first place?'

Hermione rolled back over and stared at the ceiling. 'Oh, I don't know. I'm past caring. About both of them.'

'Stop that!' Ginny chided. 'As soon as you're past caring, that's the end of it. You need to keep caring, Hermione, it's what makes you you. Don't let yourself turn numb. There's no returning once you do.'

'I've wanted to feel for so long,' Hermione admitted. 'I told him so. But I forgot that feeling felt so terrible. Now I want to be numb again.'

'What if you allowed yourself to feel something wonderful?'

Ginny left the room, leaving Hermione alone with her very busy thoughts.

One hour later she was sitting at the dining room table, dressed comfortably in jeans and her new Weasley jumper, the green H splashed proudly across her chest. This room was rarely used for eating – everyone preferred the cosiness of the kitchen – but it served well for meetings. Its heavy velvet curtains, dark wallpaper and glinting chandelier added sobriety to the occasion. Draco was due in twenty minutes, and she was preparing by leafing through Kingsley's file.

Criminal Profile: Titus Gormen

Blood Status: Pure

History: Little known. Parents Purebloods, deceased, found during Limpitas V. Hogwarts 1992-1998 – did not return for 7th year. Did not graduate. Certified Missing Without Cause in November 1999. Last confirmed sighting: May 2001. Source: Confidential but Certified.

Death Eater involvement: Certified. Suspected leader of the recent attack on Muggle village Lower Harfeld, 25th December 2004.

Nothing that she did not know already. Gormen's file was pitifully slim, but she had one clue. She needed to find the person who saw him last.

She heard the door open behind her and looked round. Malfoy was standing in the doorway, one hand in his trouser pocket, the other resting casually on the doorframe. Why is he so relaxed? Hermione asked herself, when I'm so completely on edge? 'You're early,' she commented.

'Hello,' he replied. He wanted to smile, but he did not know how she would react. Was it still too soon?

Hermione turned her eyes resolutely to the file in front of her. 'Hi. Does Harry know you're here yet?'

'Of course he does, he let me in,' Malfoy said, as if it were obvious. He approached the table and sat down opposite her. She did not speak, so he ploughed ahead. 'Are you still angry at me?'

'I've been looking through the file on Gormen, but there's not much I can glean from it,' she replied, ignoring him completely.

'Hermione, give me an answer.'

Hermione looked up at him. He seemed genuinely worried, but she did not want to talk about this, not now. 'Harry said you were here to help on the Gormen case. Please, can we just do that? This is the first time I've seen you in three months, and I'm not ready to have a good old heart-to-heart yet.'

'No time like the present,' Draco argued nonchalantly.

'I'm angry,' Hermione hissed. 'If you get me riled up, I'll probably hit you. Let me get used to seeing you first, and I'll talk to you later.'

It was a logical reply. Draco nodded slowly. 'Fine. You can probably pack quite a punch, so for the sake of my well-being, let's discuss Death Eaters.'

Hermione rolled his eyes at his attitude, but she was glad he had agreed.

'Right. Let's start again. What do you know already, and what do I have to fill you in on?' Draco asked.

'I know everything in here,' she answered, pushing the file towards him. 'But I still don't understand why you think he was the leader of the attack.'

'Because they sent me to manage it,' Draco replied simply.

'What? So, you haven't seen him yourself?'

'No, by the time I got there he had long gone. But I assume that someone saw him because it was me Shacklebolt interrupted during my nice cosy Christmas dinner to go out into a cold battlefield and look for clues.'

'I don't get it, why–'

Draco sighed. 'You are slow, aren't you? I'm the lead Auror on Gormen. Have been ever since Caster's information. That's why I was there, six weeks ago.'

Hermione looked at the table. 'I knew I'd seen you. I tried to go after you but you Disapparated.'

'I thought I could track him, but I lost him. Sorry.'

Hermione shook her head jerkily, and took a deep breath. 'Ok, so. You're the lead Auror on Gormen. That means I'll have to be working with you a lot more if I'm ever going to get peace from my friends. They seem to think it's my life's work trying to bring down this guy I know barely anything about, when I'd much rather be doing something else.'

'You don't want to work on Gormen?' Draco was mildly surprised.

'No. It doesn't make sense. I've spent every day on him since… since I came here, and still the biggest clue we have is Tempus Fugit, which is complete nonsense. You don't seem to have anything either. He's just some crazy killer and the only thing we can do is hope somebody gets him next time he attacks anywhere,' she groaned, frustrated.

'Tempus Fugit? Don't you know?' Draco asked, now really surprised.

'Know what?' Hermione snapped.

'That's the motto of the organisation he heads up. It's an international ring of illicit potions traders.'

'And why was that not in the file?' Draco shrugged. Hermione almost cried out in frustration. 'See? This is why I don't want to work with this guy. Other people have already figured everything out. All I'm doing is stressing over stuff I can't figure out because I haven't got the resources. No one ever tells me anything, and why should they, because I'm not even employed to the Ministry. It's just something Harry is getting me to do to keep my mind off things, because they all think I'm still hung up on you!'

Draco was completely taken aback by her outburst. 'I…' He paused. He knew there were so many better things to ask, but he had to take hold of the one that mattered most to him. He was selfish that way. 'But are you? Still hung up on me?'

Hermione blushed deeply. She hadn't meant to let that part slip. 'No, I… There are just so many things I've wanted to say to you, but I haven't had the chance. Where have you been?'

'Working. Say them now.' Draco held his breath, willing this to be the moment he had both anticipated and avoided ever since that morning on his living room carpet.

Hermione took a deep breath, and let it out again. 'I'm sorry for what I said. I was in shock, and my temper took over. I completely over-reacted, but at the time I honestly thought it was true. I was so hurt, you really did take away any though I had of rebuilding a future. Since coming here I've realised that I still have a hope, even if it's a different one to my original one.

'What was your original hope?' He hardly dared to hope himself.

'That we could make something of our relationship. That out of all the things I'd suffered, and all the bad memories from school, we could still draw some good out of knowing each other, and turn a horrible thing around.'

'I wanted that too. But as long as you refuse to let others near you, we can't.' It took all of Draco's effort not to just accept her unconditionally and kiss her right there and then, but he had to know first. 'Why won't you let yourself get close to anyone? I appreciate that you needed time. But you were that quick to throw me off.'

There was no malice in his tone, he simply wanted to know. So she decided to tell him. 'Because…' Hermione paused before continuing. 'You know everything else, you may as well know this. Like I told you, I got sick of living off Harry's fame. I went to live in Muggle London, and I moved in with a man called Malcolm. I hid my magic from him, and after two years I almost couldn't do anything at all. So when I had to leave, I didn't have any other option than to go to Moreau's, which cured me of any notion I had of real love. All people did there was hurt me.' She was almost proud of herself for facing up to her past so bluntly, but Malfoy did not seem impressed.

'Why couldn't you go back to your family, or Harry and Ron? You said that was your deepest secret that nobody knows. If we're going to get anywhere, I need to understand you.'

For some reason, those words made Hermione snap. She was sick of all the questions, all the interrogations, from everyone. Draco Malfoy just happened to be the last straw. 'I also told you that it was going to stay that way. It's in my past now, can't we just get on with the future?'

'How can we if you won't trust me enough to tell me what is obviously the greatest pain in your whole life?' Draco countered.

'I can barely admit it to myself yet! I did a horrible, horrible thing, and no one will accept me when they know!' cried Hermione.

'I will accept you no matter what, I promise you, as long as you come back. Do you know how hard it's been, not knowing how you were, after all I did to bring you back?'

'Oh, I'm sorry, yes, you were so heroic weren't you?' she said sarcastically. 'I'm sure the pain of separation ripped you apart. But after all, you didn't have to go far for comfort.'

Draco ran his hands through his hair in frustration. 'She left three hours after you did, and I haven't seen her since.'

Hermione tossed her hair and looked the other way, crossing her arms, and made a noise which implied that she was far from believing him. It sounded something like 'tchupsshguhh.'

Draco forced himself to stay calm, but his voice trembled with anger. 'It was a single kiss, initiated by her, and I took no pleasure in it. In fact, I found it repulsive. You know that. I bet you're just trying to pin this on me as an excuse for your complete overreaction!' Hermione tried to interrupt, but Draco continued. 'So whatever it is that's making you act this way, whatever caused your complete loss of faith in the human race, tell me. If I don't know, I can't do anything about it. And I want to help you, as much as I did on the day I found you. More.' He paused, battling with himself over whether to explain further, whether he should tell her everything. He went for it. 'Because in those few days you were with me, my life changed. You let me in to your life unconditionally, forgiving every stupid horrible thing I ever did in school. We were friends. And you know I wanted more.' His voice was barely more than a cracked whisper now, as he took Hermione's hand in his and stroked her tearstained cheek. 'But whatever it is you're not telling me is standing between us. I want you to feel comfortable with me, but that can't happen until you learn to let people into your life again.'

She placed her free hand over his, resting on her cheek. Leaning into his touch, she closed her eyes. She suddenly felt so tired, physically and emotionally. Her lips parted slightly and Draco swallowed, longing to meet them with his, longing to kiss her tears away. He ran his callused thumb over the smooth skin of her lower lip. She breathed out slowly, emitting four words he almost did not hear. But he did hear, and his hand fell away from her face abruptly as he stared at her, wide-eyed, expression unreadable.

'I killed my baby.'

It was almost careless, that quiet utterance, tinged with the feeling of relief and futility that swept through Hermione as she realised that all she wanted was to give up, and let someone else worry about her problems for once.