DISCLAIMER: Under no circumstances, real or imaginary, shall I ever be blessed with the ownership of Harry Potter, the universe he resides in, books named after him, or the characters and/or ideas in said universe and books. All things recognizable from the Potterverse belongs to the esteemed author JK Rowling.

A/N- Hey all. I apologize for not updating in so long, and I will try to get chapters out more quickly. So, please, read, review, and CRITICIZE! Thank you!

Dramione's Travels

Chapter Ten

The next day, Padma awoke to find Draco and Hermione asleep on the couch, Draco holding Hermione against his chest. 'They look so sweet together' she thought. After a moment of deliberation, she left for breakfast.

A little while later, Hermione started to stir. She soon noticed she was on someone's chest. She vaguely thought that it was a very nice chest as well. Opening her eyes, she saw that it was Draco's chest. With a sudden jolt, she remembered the events of the prior evening. She tried to get up, but Draco's arm held her firmly to his side. "Draco," she said, "Draco, wake up."

"In a minu' mmhmm, yah da…" he mumbled.

Okay then. After thinking for a moment, Hermione tried summoning all the anger she possibly could. She thought of Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort, Ron being a prat, Harry being sullen; all the things that got under her skin and used them in an attempt to summon up her anger. Her plan worked. Draco bolted upright, scanning the room. His eyes landed on her and he said in a groggy voice, "wassa matter?" He shook his head and blinked. "What the bloody hell's got your knickers in a twist, Hermione?"

Smiling, she answered, "Nothing, you just wouldn't let me up, and as nothing else worked, I figured a blast of strong emotion might wake you."

"No wonder Potty gets away with everything, smartest witch of the age…" he muttered before saying, "Hermione, how long will this last? Feeling what the other's feeling, I mean."

"I'm not completely sure. No more than a day I think. We both checked the punch and it was safe, so potions are out and the only spell with this effect is the Empathy Charm. It only lasts 24 hours, so tomorrow we should be fine. Until then though, we should probably avoid other people. Being able to feel what the other feels could get even more confusing around others."

"I most definitely agree. If we got separated and something happened, even if it was normal, the other would get confused. I, personally, would like to avoid confusion. I am a Malfoy after all. So what should we do?"

"Okay, Mr. Arrogant. Let's do homework. Probably the safest, simplest, and best idea for the moment." Hermione then proceeded to pull two tables together and set up. Draco watched in disbelief as she covered the tables from end to end with various class materials for their homework. She noticed his expression and asked, "What, what's wrong?"

"Where am I supposed to sit?"

"The clear spot, the one right over there." It was a very small spot.

"Do you always do homework like this?"

"Yes I do, why?"

"How does anyone else do theirs? You're worse than a Ravenclaw before their N.E.W.T.s!"

"I suppose they do it elsewhere."

"Huh."

"Can we please get to work?"

"I suppose. Still, I now know how you manage to maintain such spectacular grades."

"Pardon me?"

"The brave Gryffindor Lions fear for their lives at the risk of incurring the House Bookworm's wrath." Hermione tilted her head and just looked at him for a moment before she burst out laughing. "What?"

"You are so smug when you figure things out!" He too, had to laugh at the blatant truth of that statement. Eventually, after a lot of giggling, they did get started on their homework in a comfortable silence.

~*~*~*~

Around noon, a house elf came with lunch as Hermione was finishing her second to last assignment. She and Draco looked up at the elf who announced, "Neeiha is bringing lunch to the other two Hogwarts students, she is."

Looking at the time, Draco replied, "Thank you Neeiha. Could you please leave it on the other table? Thank you." Seeing the look on Hermione's face, he said, "what?"

"You're being nice. To a house elf."

"Yeah, what's so bad about that?"

"After Harry's description of Dobby and Dobby's description of you, I kind of figured you'd think they were below you."

"I told you before, Hermione, I've changed. I can see now that my father was wrong. About a lot of things. Thankfully, he's in Azkaban and I'm no longer in Britain, where Voldemort can't get me."

"Okay. I'm sorry. I'm just still getting used to it. Um, Draco?"

"Yes?"

"I'm having trouble."

Shocked, Draco asked, "You are? With what?"

Sheepishly, she replied, "Dark Arts. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's absolutely fascinating, I love seeing it as something other than a purely evil, taboo subject. But do you think you could help me with the paper? I still can't seem to bring myself to not go all crazy and oppose them and we're supposed to write a paper on the uses of supposedly dark spells in the modern world. So, I'm unfortunately stuck."

"Well, how about you take sectumsempra for example. While generally used to cut off various body parts in an opponent, or just plain cut them, it can also cut through otherwise unbreakable bonds."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"Okay, thanks. What about Unforgivables though?"

"Well, let's think about it. The Imperius Curse could be used in trials to order the accused to tell the truth during the trial, the same for jobs to determine who'd be best suited for it. It could also be used in prisons so we wouldn't need Dementors. Instead, we could merely order the prisoners to behave, thus saving the prisoners from madness and protecting anyone who might be innocent, but who was thrown in, no matter what. We could have Aurors guarding it in the event of a prisoner throwing it off.

"And the killing curse could be used for the death penalty. If not, for humanely slaughtering animals, or Aurors could use it on Dark Wizards and Witches to stop them.

"Although, having felt it myself, and what's needed behind it, I have to say, I can't think of a use for the Cruciatus. I personally, would see all mention of it burned and obliviated if possible. There doesn't seem to be any use for it except pain and that can be achieved in other ways."

"Thanks Draco, you really helped me with this. I think I can finally write that essay."