DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, nor am I affiliated in any way with J.K. Rowling.

When Hermione left the hospital wing a few hours later, she made a beeline for the library. She didn't remember much about the night she fainted but she dimly recalled that Malfoy had found a book in the Restricted Section. Chances were, of course, that he still had it, but she wanted to have another sweep of the library just in case.

She was surprised when she headed for her usual table to see Malfoy already sitting there. He glanced up as she approached and gestured for her to take the seat opposite him before going back to the book he was apparently engrossed in.

"Is it seven already?" Hermione frowned, breaking the silence.

"No," Malfoy answered shortly.

"So then why are you here?"

"Why are you?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Why did he have to be so frustrating?

Malfoy flicked his eyes up at her.

"Just sit down, Granger," he said, a hint of exasperation in his tone.

Hermione complied…grudgingly.

"I've got some things to tell you," she said after it became clear Malfoy wasn't about to strike up a conversation. "I think we've got a suspect about who killed Zella."

Malfoy looked up at her again, a hard expression on his face.

"If you even suggest that Trayton-"

"No, not him," Hermione interrupted impatiently. "This is going to sound odd, even by recent standards, but I got a look at Zella's memories the last time I was asleep."

Malfoy finally put the book down and stared at her with unnerving intensity.

"I got a look - not to mention a running commentary - at a couple of the times that Zella and Trayton were together. The first memory had Zella's best friend in it-"

"Finian, right?" Malfoy cut across.

"Fin," Hermione corrected. "And how did you know?"

"Trayton told me," Malfoy answered with a shrug.

Hermione sighed. "This 'trusting you enough to tell you important information' thing works both ways, you know."

"Right, I'll tell you next time," he promised.

"Sure," Hermione answered, unconvinced. "Anyway, Fin was in love with Zella big time. I don't think she could tell but it was really obvious from an outsider's perspective."

"So you think he killed her because she didn't love him?"

"Maybe," Hermione answered with a shrug.

"But then wouldn't he kill Trayton so that Zella was free for him?" Malfoy pointed out.

"I don't know," Hermione sighed. "Killing seems a little too extreme, a little too psychotic…"

"A little too Slytherin?" Malfoy suggested.

"Exactly," Hermione nodded. "No offence or anything."

Malfoy shrugged. He had encountered worse insults.

"Is that the book you took out the night I fainted?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"You remember that?"

"That and not much else," Hermione said with a nod. She bit her lip uncomfortably. "I don't know if I thanked you for taking me to the hospital wing."

"You did," Malfoy assured her uncomfortably. "Although you were sort of out of it when you said it. I suppose the sleeping potion had made you woozy."

Panic shot through Hermione.

"Did I say anything else?" she asked quickly.

Who knows what type of things she could've said whilst under the influence of a potion? Embarrassing, private things. Oh, Merlin…

"Not really," Malfoy said slowly, frowning. Probably at her horror-struck expression, but who knew with him? "You called me by my first name, which was new."

"Oh," Hermione said, her expression lightening. "Well, that's not too bad."

"What's wrong, afraid some deep, dark secret would come out?" Malfoy asked, raising his pale eyebrows at her.

"No," Hermione scoff. "But I've seen intoxicated people before. Their input to conversations are generally 'I love you'."

"I wish you would've said that, it would've been gold for blackmailing you with later on."

Hermione found herself laughing slightly before forcing her face to keep itself straight. When she looked back up, Malfoy was frowning at her again.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You can laugh, you know," he told her, his eyes not leaving hers. "Just because you hate me doesn't mean you can't have a laugh with me."

"I don't hate you," Hermione said before she could stop herself. At Malfoy's look, she frowned. "I don't!" she insisted. "Harry and Ron hate you. I'm just there in the background, quietly disliking you."

"Good to know," Malfoy commented dryly.

"You know what I mean," Hermione said with a small smile. "I don't hate you. I could even start regarding you as a casual acquaintance if you stopped being such a prat."

"A casual acquaintance?" Malfoy repeated. "I think you're going a little fast there, Granger." He allowed himself a small smile. "Alright, casual acquaintance it is."

"You're prepared to give up being a prat to be my casual acquaintance?"

"I forgot that part…okay, deal's off."

Hermione laughed until the uneasy thought that she was laughing with Draco Malfoy hit her again. She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

"So is Trayton going to show up, do you think?" she asked, busying herself with something in her bag.

"He should do," Malfoy answered with a nod. "I can't exactly call him like a dog but he's generally around anyway. It's just a matter of waiting."

Great, Hermione thought, putting her bag back on the floor. Waiting.

"So do you feel alright now?" Malfoy asked after managing less than thirty seconds of silence. His tone, as though he too realized that he was being friendly, turned scornful. "You should do, you've spent the past couple of days asleep."

"I feel fine now," Hermione answered, oddly glad of the familiar ice in Malfoy's voice. The two of them being anything other than enemies didn't make sense to her just yet. "I also had kind of a theory as to why I fainted."

"Other than exhaustion?"

"Well, yes, obviously," Hermione replied scathingly. "But I mean why I fainted at midnight. It didn't strike me until recently but ever since I've been dreaming about Zella, I've been waking up at midnight. Then I fainted at midnight. It's always dark in my dreams and I'm willing to bet that Zella was killed at midnight."

"Recurring theme of midnight," Malfoy mused, leaning back in his chair contemplatively. "What do you think it means?"

"I don't know," Hermione admitted, furrowing her brow in concentration. "I'm thinking that maybe she was killed as part of a ritual? I mean, there are loads of magical ways that someone could've killed Zella and yet they chose to stab her? It seems more than a little odd to me. Plus she had her tongue cut out. We can't forget about that."

Malfoy nodded slowly, continuing to lean back.

"You'll fall," Hermione warned him absently.

"Sorry, Mother," Malfoy answered with a roll of his eyes. Still, he set the chair back on all four legs. He drummed his fingers on the table and sighed loudly. "I'm going to find Trayton."

"Patience is a virtue," Hermione reminded him as he got up and began to walk away.

Malfoy stopped walking and turned to her with a smile that caused her chest to constrict ever so slightly.

"Of which I have none," he said, before leaving the library.

Hermione was glad he left as she had no witty response to that. Or any response at all, actually. She began to chew on her lip as she considered the implications of being casual acquaintances with Malfoy. Or Draco. Did casual acquaintances address each other by forenames or surnames? It was something she'd have to look into. She couldn't help thinking that feeling anything other than animosity to him would be dangerous. After all, look at what had happened to Zella and Trayton.

"Good afternoon, Miss Granger."

Hermione jumped and snapped her head around. The ghost of Trayton Malfoy stood behind her, a mournful expression on his face.

"A-afternoon," Hermione answered, choosing to wait until her heart had stopped hammering to say anything else. "You just missed Malfoy. Uh, Draco."

"I know," Trayton answered. "I came to talk to you."

As he hovered around the table and stopped just behind his vacated descendant's seat, Hermione considered how much he had changed. He looked a little older but still retained some of the good looks that he had when he was alive. His voice had adopted a haunted tone (oh, the irony) that matched his joyless eyes.

"Do you know who I am?" Trayton asked, his eyes almost staring through her.

"Yes," Hermione answered uneasily.

"Do you know why I'm here?"

"Not really," Hermione said, glad that her necklace was safely underneath her top and out of view. "But I know about you and Zella."

"What do you know?" he asked, tilting his head slightly as though he was trying to get a better view of her.

"That you were a couple," Hermione started until Trayton cut her off with a bitter laugh.

"We were so much more than that," he spat.

Hermione didn't know if he was angry at her or just angry in general so she kept silent.

"Anything else?" Trayton prompted.

"That she was killed by someone," Hermione continued hesitantly. "That the whole school was against your relationship."

"And what about the necklace that you're wearing right now?" Trayton asked coolly.

"It…it used to be Zella's," Hermione whispered, frightened.

"Yes," Trayton nodded coldly. "It did."

He managed to be threatening and sinister without saying more than a sentence or two. Hermione wondered what he could do with some actual power behind him.

"Draco tells me that you wouldn't willingly give up the necklace and now it's grafted itself onto your skin?" Trayton asked lightly, as though he were talking about the weather.

"I don't know if grafted is the right word-"

"But it won't come off?"

"Well, no. Maybe the clasp is broken or-"

"So what you're telling me is that the one thing keeping me tied to this plane of existence is locked inside a necklace which I can't access because it's fastened around your neck and won't come off," Trayton summarised, not sounding too happy about it. "Did you put a spell on it?"

"I haven't touched it with magic," Hermione promised. "Except to check if there was any dark magic on it."

"You think I would give the love of my life - and death - a cursed necklace?" Trayton accused, his eyes narrowing.

"No!" Hermione answered frantically. "I didn't know anything about you or Zella or anything when I first got the necklace!"

Trayton glared at her for a moment longer before blinking, sighing and cradling his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry," he said, his miserable voice muffled. "I just didn't think it would be this difficult. Zella's soul is trapped in what is for all I know hell and I can't save her."

"She isn't in hell," Hermione ventured. "I think she's just in limbo, reliving her memories over and over in my dreams."

"You see her in your dreams," Trayton murmured, lifting his head and looking at her again, his eyes filled with pain. "What I wouldn't give for that blessing."

"I don't know if it's any comfort," Hermione began tentatively, "but she still thinks about you. Still loves you. Even in death."

"Does she speak of me?" Trayton asked, his eyes daring to hope.

The image of Zella's bloodied, tongue-less mouth flashed in Hermione's mind and she wrinkled her nose.

"I'm sure she would if she could," Hermione comforted. "But, um, she can't. Her tongue was…"

"Cut out," Trayton finished desolately and he looked like he was about to cry. "Of course." He shuddered. "I sometimes wish I hadn't been the one to find her. I tried to stem the blood from her wound but by then she was already dead. The blood never quite came off my hands." He clenched his jaw. "I had hoped that she would be at peace, wherever she was, but if she's sustained the injuries that caused her death then how can she be anywhere but hell?"

He was becoming angry again and Hermione tried to think of something to say to calm him down.

"I don't think she's in pain," she offered. "She can project her thoughts and memories at me and not once has she suggested that the wounds hurt her."

Trayton nodded slowly although Hermione didn't know if he was comforted.

"What memories has she shown you?" he asked.

"Only two," Hermione answered. "Both with you in them. The first was the time you went for a…night time swim with no clothes on with your friends."

Trayton's face broke into a smile.

"I remember that night," he said with a laugh. "She was so brave in front of the Sons. Not like that idiot friend of hers."

"Fin," Hermione supplied. "Did you know that was…?"

"Infatuated with her?" Trayton finished distastefully. "Yes. It was obvious to everyone but Zella." His expression changed again and he smiled sadly. "My girl always saw the best in people." He sighed and looked at Hermione. "The same as you, evidently."

"Everyone has good inside of them," Hermione said with a shrug. "It's just a matter of looking."

"Hermione, that's a childish and naïve way of looking at the world."

Hermione, startled, frowned at him and struggled for words to express her incredulousness.

"I didn't mean offence," Trayton said quickly, seeing her expression. "I just meant that Zella saw the good in everyone and one of those people ended up…" his expression became pained as he tried to choose the right word, " mutilating her."

"But there were other factors at work there," Hermione argued, her logical side shining through.

"But still, if she had been less trusting then maybe things would've turned out different," Trayton pointed out. "I don't know you properly but you're Zella's family and I don't want you to come to any harm. There are some people in this school that you cannot trust."

At this point, the latest generation of Malfoys turned the corners made of bookcases and headed for the table, pausing only when he saw Trayton raised his transparent eyebrows and threw a pointed look at Hermione.

"What are you doing here?" Draco asked, annoyed that he had been searching for someone who was here all along and perplexed at the look that Hermione was giving him.

"Just chatting," Trayton said carelessly. "It turns out that Hermione here shares some traits with Zella."

Both the Malfoys turned their gazes on Hermione who was frowning slightly at the table beneath her.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked her, confused both at her expression and why he cared.

"I should go," she said suddenly without looking at him. "I need to tell Harry and Ron I'm out of the hospital wing."

As she picked up her bag and stood up quickly, Draco turned his glare onto Trayton. What exactly had he said that had freaked out Hermione so much?

"I'll see you later?" he asked as the girl slung her bag over her shoulder and made to leave as soon as Draco stepped out of her way.

"Maybe tomorrow," she said, flustered and still not looking at him. "I have homework to catch up on."

"Alright," Draco said slowly, stepping out of her way. The moment she had gone, he turned angrily to Trayton. "What did you say to her?"

"We were discussing Zella's death and it must have upset her," Trayton answered with a shrug. "You know how temperamental teenage girls are."

"That's all you said, nothing else?" Draco asked disbelievingly.

"Well, I was talking about trust," Trayton remembered slowly. "Maybe that got her thinking about you. The two of you seem rather intimate…meeting up in hidden corners of the library, discussing a matter than no one else knows about."

"We're not intimate," Draco snarled. "Hermione and I are casual acquaintances."

Trayton couldn't hold in a laugh.

"Casual acquaintances?" he repeated. "Right. When I first met you, you couldn't stand the girl. Now you're using her first name and actually showing concern when she appears upset."

"That doesn't mean anything," Draco hissed. "And maybe I'm doing all of those things to help you, like you asked me to."

"But you already know that you can't get the necklace," Trayton pointed out, raising his eyebrows again. "So why are you continuing with this girl?"

"It's a way to pass the time," Draco answered defensively. He knew that if he thought in-depth about why he wanted to spend time with Hermione Granger then his world would implode. "Don't you have someone else to haunt? I hear that the Bloody Baron is looking for a chess partner."

Trayton shrugged and drifted away, leaving a troubled Draco behind with his thoughts.

What's wrong, Hermione? Zella thought later on that night, glancing sadly at Hermione.

They were in another memory of hers, walking slowly behind the memories of Zella and Trayton who whispered and giggled to one another on another of their night time patrols.

"Nothing," Hermione said quickly, tearing her eyes away from her feet to glance at Zella.

You can tell me things, you know, Zella thought, smiling.

Hermione sighed. Admitting what was troubling her out loud would make it real.

Is it a boy? Zella guessed, correctly.

"Yes," Hermione admitted as they turned another dark corner. "He's arrogant and funny and intelligent and a complete prick at times."

That sounds like a Malfoy, Zella thought, laughing as her eyes softened at the mention of her beloved's family name.

Hermione cleared her throat awkwardly.

Zella stopped walking.

It's a Malfoy? she asked, confused.

"The latest in a long line of arrogant, funny, intelligent ones by the sound of it," Hermione nodded, waiting for Zella to begin walking again.

Must be a descendant of Trayton's cousin, Zella mused and began following her past again.

Hermione rather doubted this but didn't want to hurt Zella's feelings by yanking her out of denial. It was after all a nice, comforting place to be.

So what's wrong with liking him? Zella thought after a moment of silence.

"Everything," Hermione answered, flustered.

Everything? Zella repeated. My, you did choose the wrong boy.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh.

"You know what I mean," she said. "He's just wrong for me on so many different levels. Plus he's only with me all the time because he wants my necklace. Your necklace."

If he's looking for jewellery then I think you may be barking up the wrong tree, Zella warned, her eyes glinting mischievously.

"Nineteenth century girls aren't supposed to know about those types of things," Hermione admonished with a grin. "Anyway, I'm firmly up the right tree." She paused and frowned. "No, I'm not up any tree! All the trees in this forest have been chopped down."

So why are you so worried all of a sudden? Zella inquired.

"It's just something that Trayton said," Hermione shrugged.

Trayton? Zella asked, stopping again and confusion and pain etching themselves onto her face. You've spoken to Trayton?

"I could've sworn I told you…" Hermione started, but with a horrified jolt realized that she had said nothing of the sort. "Uh, yeah. Trayton's ghost wants the necklace to try and bring you out of limbo so you can be together only now the necklace is kind of attached to me and won't let go and I would've told you this before only you didn't speak so I didn't think I'd get a response and I'm rambling and you're looking hurt so I'll stop."

She watched the ghost anxiously but Zella could only stare after the memory of her lover and tremble.

Hermione was about to say something else when the world around her went black and before she knew it, she was awake again.

Zella must be really mad, she thought anxiously, sighing as she considered how badly she had messed up this time.

A/N:

Hello there!

I would've made this chapter longer to include another Draco/Hermione scene, but that'll have to be next chapter now. I've actually become rather addicted to Facebook and, after spending almost all day on it, I'm now pretty tired.

Hope you all enjoyed and thanks for your reviews! :D

You may be disappointed to know that I broke my 'no coffee' resolution already, but it was an actual emergency. At least, the first time was.

Have a great week!

- Momo