A/N: I'm so sorry, you guys! I wanted to give you an early update this week but yesterday was just super slammed. On the plus side, I'm officially done with my second year of college! Yay! Anyway, here's a belated early update for you guys. Keep the reviews coming, I love to know what you think! Oh, and I made a mistake last chapter, Draco plays the piano in this chapter, not the last one! Oops. I also gave you guys the wrong song. Ha! The one I imagine him playing is Photograph by Ed Sheeran. Here's the link: watch?v=GsMRETqlA3A&list=PLHggqueXHeYUeL5O-PbMvwFwP_6qfoB84&index=2

Tallyho!

Chapter 10:

Draco awoke to a soft pair of lips meeting his. He kissed them back but all too soon, the kiss ended. His eyes fluttered open to find Hermione dressed with a bag hanging over her shoulder. She gave him a small smile as he looked up at her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

He shook his head. "No, I'm glad you did. Are you leaving?"

She nodded. "We want to get an early start."

He nodded in understanding. "Come here."

She smirked and obliged. As she got closer to him, he met her lips with fervor. She chuckled into the kiss and tried to pull back but he only pulled her closer until she fell on top of him with a loud "Oof!"

"I have to go!" she laughed.

He grunted in response. "I'll come back in one piece. I promise." she said.

He huffed. "Alright."

She smiled and gave him a quick peck on his lips. "See you soon." And with that, she left to go on her mission. Draco fell back onto the bed and closed his eyes as he tried to fall back asleep. He managed to get a few more hours of sleep before waking up fully again. He spent the day reading and playing the piano. While playing, he began to play a new melody that came to his head. Thinking he had to write the melody down before he lost it, he conjured up some sheet music with his wand and began to write the notes down. Before he knew it, he had a song written. All he needed was a name for it.

As he was brainstorming, he heard a loud bang and a clamor of voices coming from the hall. Then he heard Hermione's frantic voice and flew up from the piano. He walked out to the hall to find Harry and Hermione carrying a body into the dining room. He followed them quickly, finding that the body they were holding was Ron. And his shoulder was bleeding… badly.

"What happened?" Draco and Harry asked at the same time. They looked at each other in confusion then back at the redhead who Hermione was working feverishly to heal now.

"When that man latched onto us from the Ministry, I took him to the middle of the Forest of Dean where my parents used take me camping. Ron and I were able to shake him off but then I apparated back here and Ron wasn't ready for it. In the process he got splinched!"

"Man, what man?" Draco asked.

"Harry, keep putting dittany on his wound, I'll be back!" Hermione said ignoring his question. She ran past Draco and up the stairs. Draco looked at Harry who looked terrified for his friend. He knew it wouldn't be good to stand around so he did the one thing he never thought he'd do.

"What can I do to help?" he asked.

Harry looked at him suspicious but it vanished quickly when Ron groaned in pain. "Help me elevate his arm. We need to prevent him from losing anymore blood." Draco nodded and ran to the living room to grab a pillow. He came back quickly and laid it under Ron's arm, despite him yelping in pain. Hermione came running back downstairs, her arms full of medical supplies. She didn't bother asking either boy to move, she just forced herself in between the two.

She grabbed a wet rag and patted Ron's wound gently. Then she grabbed another rag and took a brown bottle and poured it onto the rag. Draco looked at the bottle in confusion: iodine. He had no idea what that was but he was just about to find out.

"Harry, Draco, hold him down." Hermione commanded. They followed her orders immediately. "This is going to hurt." she warned.

She put the rag right on Ron's wound causing him to cry loudly in pain. Draco quickly realized why Hermione had them hold him down; in his pain, Ron began to thrash around trying to get away from her but Draco and Harry had a good hold on him. He wasn't going anywhere. As Hermione finished cleaning the wound, she grabbed some gauze and a piece of fabric that she transfigured into a sling and put them on Ron. The redhead had stopped thrashing but was still whimpering in pain. Hermione shushed him as she brushed some hair out of his face causing Draco to grind his teeth. He knew she was just being caring about her friend, but he didn't like how natural that movement seemed for her.

"You're gonna be fine. It wasn't as bad as it could've been. Still, you need to rest. I'm going to give you a potion that will ease the pain and it will help you sleep. Let's get you upstairs."

Harry took that as his cue to help Ron up. Draco bit back his jealousy and took Ron's other side and picked up the rest of his weight, careful not to touch his damaged arm. The two boys led him upstairs to a spare bedroom while Hermione followed close behind. As they laid him on the bed, Hermione had Ron drink the potion. Immediately, he relaxed and within a few minutes, he was asleep.

The three went back downstairs to the dining room. Hermione went to wash the blood off her hands. Ron's blood. She washed it off as quickly as she could before turning off the water. She couldn't stand to look at it, knowing that the cause had been her fault. After drying her hands, she turned around and stared at the floor. Her breathing began to become uneven. After a moment, she choked back a sob as she covered her face with her shaking hands. Her body wracked with silent sobs.

She didn't realize her entire body was shaking until a pair of arms wrapped around her. She leaned into them as the sobs became audible. She could hardly breathe, she was crying so hard. The arms stroked her back soothingly while a quiet voice whispered to her that it was going to be okay.

"It's all my fault." she said.

Draco looked at her with furrowed brows. "What is?"

She pulled back and looked at him with desperate and broken eyes. "Ron." she choked. "If I had pulled him closer, if I had been paying more attention, he wouldn't have gotten splinched!"

Draco's hands caressed her face. "Hermione, you can't blame yourself for that."

"Malfoy's right," Harry agreed. Under different circumstances, both boys would've looked at each other like they were crazy for agreeing with one another but now was not the time to question why they were agreeing. "What happened was an accident. In no way was that your fault. Hermione, you just saved his life!"

"By nearly killing him!" she replied hysterically. Draco wrapped his arms around her again and pulled her close as she began to hyperventilate.

"Breathe." he said. "It's okay. He's alive and that's the important thing. Just breathe."

Her breathing steadied slightly but she clung to him, afraid that if she let go, she'd collapse. Harry seemed to sense this.

"Maybe you should lay down too." he suggested. Draco nodded in agreement.

She shook her head. "No, I- I have to help clean up and then we have to figure out how to destroy the locket."

Harry shook his head. "Malfoy and I can take care of that. You go lay down. You'll feel better once you wake up."

Without waiting for an answer, Draco bent down and picked up Hermione's legs so he was carrying her bridal style. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on for dear life as he carried her up the stairs. When they entered his room, he laid her down on the bed as he grabbed a change of clothes from the bag she brought her stuff in. Finding a pair of pyjama pants and a t-shirt, he began to take off the bloodied clothes she was wearing. The pantsuit she was in, which he assumed was from the woman she pretended to be with the polyjuice potion, were basically ruined. He'd throw them out when he left the room. As he got her into more comfortable clothing, he noticed that she stopped shaking and her breathing was becoming more even. After she was changed, he tucked her into bed.

As he got up to leave, Hermione grabbed his hand. He looked back at her confused until he saw the anxiety in her eyes. "Stay with me?" she asked.

He smiled. "Of course." He got onto the bed next to her and ran his fingers through her hair soothingly as he tried to get her to sleep. It was about half an hour before her eyes began to droop. Fifteen minutes later, she finally fell asleep. Draco smiled at her as she finally looked peaceful. He knew today would be difficult for them, he just underestimated how difficult. But she'd be okay. She was resilient and she'd come back from her shock stronger and more determined than ever.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He looked out the door and found Harry looking for him. When they made eye contact, Draco gave him a quick nod before carefully sliding his arm out from underneath Hermione's head. She shifted slightly in her sleep but didn't wake up. Grabbing the beat up clothes, he quietly exited the room, closing the door behind him.

He followed Harry downstairs into the living room where a fire was lit. Draco noticed that the clothes that he and Ron had been wearing were in the fire so he did the same with the pantsuit. Draco turned around to find Harry sitting in one of the chairs staring at the locket in his hands.

"So you got it?" Draco asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. Now we just need to find a way to destroy it."

Draco sighed and sat on the couch, across from Harry. The two were silent for a while; Draco watching the fire while Harry stared at the locket. Finally, Draco spoke.

"What happened? Hermione said there was a man that caught on with you."

Harry sighed and looked up. "The Polyjuice Potion ran out sooner than we thought. Right as we got the locket, the potion began to wear off. As soon as Umbridge saw me, she sent the dementors after me. I was able to get Hermione and Ron quickly and we ran as fast as we could to get out of there but someone was behind us. I don't know who, all I know is that he works for Voldemort. When we apparated out of there, he latched on so Hermione diverted our course to the middle of the Forest of Dean in order to lose him. After that… well, you know the rest…" he trailed off.

Draco nodded. No wonder Hermione was so panicked; the safe house almost got exposed and her friends almost got killed in the process. Fortunately, everyone was safe (yes, even Ron).

"So what now?" Draco asked.

"Now, we find a way to destroy it."

"Any ideas?"

Harry bit his cheek. "I was hoping you would have an idea."

Draco was taken aback. "Me?"

Harry nodded. "Hermione told me what you told her about Snape and his information on the horcruxes." Of course she did. Draco thought, rolling his eyes. "I didn't believe her at first. But when told me that you were on Veritaserum, I couldn't deny that you were telling the truth."

Draco huffed in exasperation. "Where are you going with this, Potter?"

"Did Snape give you any information on how to destroy the horcruxes? Anything at all?"

Draco thought long and hard about that. Snape had only told him what little information that he knew. Draco tried to remember if Snape had dropped any hints about how to destroy one. He was about to say no, when he remembered something that Snape had mentioned.

"Fiendfyre." he said.

"What?"

"Fiendfyre. I remember Snape saying something about how Fiendfyre is strong enough that it can destroy anything. Even the darkest of magical objects. I wonder if it can destroy the horcrux."

Harry thought about that. "It could work. But the problem is, if the caster is not experienced, Fiendfyre could get out of control really quick. And it can't be put out by normal or enchanted water. It can only be put out by some sort of charm right?"

Draco nodded. "Right. And you're right about the caster being inexperienced but you're forgetting who Snape's favorite student was and who spent all last summer learning everything Dark Magic related."

Harry's jaw dropped. "You know how to control Fiendfyre?"

Draco nodded. "And the charm to stop it."

Harry shook his head in disbelief. "Then let's do it."

Quickly, the boys ran to the piano room and transfigured it to look like how Hermione always changed it when they were training. The mirrors were gone, however as Draco cast a spell that would allow the room to be flame proof. Harry set the locket in the middle of the floor then stood in the hallway in front of the doorway with Draco as they prepared to destroy it.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

Draco nodded. He cast the spell then quickly put a protection shield in front of the room to keep the rest of the house safe. Immediately the room went ablaze. The horcrux instantly caught on fire and blew up. Suddenly a giant cloud of smoke appeared out of the locket; the cloud kept growing and growing until a face appeared in the smoke. The face of Voldemort. Draco had to bite back a scream as the face that haunted his nightmares appeared in the piano room. But as soon as the face appeared, it vanished and the locket jumped from the final impact of the explosion and then it fell back to the ground.

Draco looked at Harry and noticed that he had his hand on his forehead and seemed to be straining to stay focused but said nothing as he regained composure. As Draco cast the charm that got rid of the Fiendfyre, the boys waited a few moments before taking down the protective charm and hesitantly walking into the room. The fireproof charm worked, the room looked like it hadn't been touched at all. Draco turned the room back to it's normal arrangement while Harry picked up the locket from the floor. It was completely broken. The Fiendfyre definitely worked. When they were done, they walked into the dining room and stared at the locket as Harry placed it on the table.

"Now what?" Draco asked.

Harry shrugged. "Now nothing. We have to wait for Ron to heal and who knows how long that will take. For now, we keep getting as much information on the horcruxes as we can: find their locations and find out other ways to destroy them."

Draco nodded. "Well, if there's anything else I can do to help let me know." He said as he walked into the kitchen to turn the kettle on.

Harry shook his head in disbelief. Draco Malfoy just offered to help. Hell, he did just help destroy a horcrux. And he helped Hermione calm down. What in Merlin's name was going on? If Harry's world wasn't already flipped upside down, he'd be worried he was going mad.

He followed Draco into the kitchen to find him pouring tea into a mug. He watched him as he put a couple of sugar cubes in with a touch of cream; just how Hermione liked it. He really seemed to know her well. Harry smiled despite himself.

"You really care about her don't you?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.

Draco stopped stirring the tea for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"Hermione. You really care about her don't you?"

Draco's head perked up at her name but he said nothing. Harry smirked. "I'll take that as a yes."

Draco grabbed the mug and began to walk out of the room. He made it a few steps behind Harry into the dining room before he stopped. "Yes." he said, before walking back upstairs to his room. To Hermione.

Harry nodded. Maybe they weren't so bad for each other after all…