Chapter 10

The students studied hard for their upcoming NEWTs and Draco and Hermione were managing to juggle their Head duties impeccably, on top of everything else. Draco continuously went to meetings and he always came back looking sad and lost, at least until he was back with Hermione, then he felt whole again. He felt like his life had a purpose again.

Hermione and Draco also managed to find time to work on their elemental powers, something that their friends found to be incredibly cool when the couple finally confided in them. They studied them as well as they could, but they were unable to find a lot of books about it in the school library. They were finally able to control the powers they possessed, they could reign them in and flare them out on command and Dumbledore was incredibly happy with them. During their last private practice session, in a closed classroom that Dumbledore had allowed them to use, Draco had made it hail huge balls of ice, he could manage to direct them, make them hit certain objects and targets. Hermione was beyond proud of him. She was able to make flames appear out of nowhere, catching specific objects on fire with ease. She also learned, as her powers progressed, that she was able to control heat without any sort of flame being present. She could probably make a person boil from the inside if she had to. The same went for Draco, just opposite, he could freeze the air, or, if need be, a person. They also didn't need as much recuperation time now, even a quick kiss was able to sustain their power and energy for a few hours.

Harry, Ginny, Pansy and Blaise spent a lot of time in the classroom with the two, practicing their dueling and learning new, advanced spells. They were also getting extremely good at transfiguration and were able to change objects, themselves, and each other's appearances easily. They may not have had elemental power to back them up but they were still incredibly strong, and training together caused them to be able to foresee each other's actions. The students would be a force to reckon with when the time came.

Hermione and Draco were able to block out most of the pain shared between them now, which was the fruit of many hours of labour. It took weeks for them to learn, enduring a ridiculous amount of pain to get there, Draco could undergo the cruciatus curse and Hermione was able to shut it out at the first hint of pain. They had to turn off the pain receptor in their brains when it was happening, which took a lot of focus and sometimes left each of them in a detached state, but it was better than feeling each other's pain so acutely.

It was for the best.

The six friends were as close as they could be, and they all still managed to keep the relationships forming between them all a secret from the rest of the school. The bickering stopped, the sarcasm toward each other didn't; but that was probably how things would always be between the two once opposing groups of friends. Hermione's runes and her Malfoy family crest were never seen by anyone else, although as the weather got warmer she had plenty of people ask her why she was continuing to wear long sleeve shirts.

Ron hadn't come around and Hermione was sad about it in a way, but also kind of glad. After what he did and what he had caused without even considering his actions… that was unforgivable. He could have got both her and Draco killed, she couldn't accept and forget that. Harry and Ginny still spoke to him, of course, but they never spoke of him around their new group of friends.

Before Hermione even knew it, June was upon them, right along with NEWTs and graduation.

"What are we going to do after school?"

Hermione posed the question to Draco one night while sitting in the common room. It was something she found that she was thinking about constantly, which was a hindrance to her exams that she was studying for in every spare waking moment.

"Would you like to be more specific?"

"With everything, really…"

"Well, we are going to find a place to live, wait for our NEWT results so that we can apply for jobs, and then go from there."

"And we are going to live together?"

"Of course we're going to live together, why wouldn't we?"

Draco was looking at her like she was mad.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that you're a Death Eater and I'm a muggleborn?"

"You're still my wife," Draco growled this, suddenly annoyed.

"How will the charade continue, Draco?"

"We will get a secret keeper."

Hermione was surprised with herself, how had she not thought about that?

"Right."

Draco was grinning at her, but he didn't make a comment about her slip up.

"Do you think it's going to come to a close after school is out?"

"Well we know that the Dark Lord is waiting for Harry to be out of school, it only makes sense that he would want to wait until Dumbledore is out of the picture before he attacks him."

"I don't know what's going to happen." Hermione sighed and shifted on the couch, "All I know is that I want all of us to survive."

"We will."

"I hope so… Maybe we should all live together, at least until the war is over."

Draco gave Hermione a look.

"Seriously, Draco! Think about it, we aren't as strong without all of us there, and Harry and Blaise could kick some serious arse when they're together. Obviously with us as well, but even though they don't have the power that we possess, they're still amazingly strong. We know each other's tactics, and Ginny and Pansy are just brilliant together too. What if Pansy was living in a flat alone and something happened? She's strong, but she's much stronger with all of us around to give her confidence and assistance. What if something happened to Harry or Blaise while they were alone…? Or Ginny? I don't think I could live with myself. Between the six of us we could get a decent sized place so we would all still have privacy, but we would all have the comfort of having the others around. And since Ginny and Harry are together, and so are Blaise and Pansy… it would just be like having the best roommates imaginable."

"You've put a lot of thought into this," Draco said, smirking slightly.

"I have."

"I like it."

"Really?!"

"We'll talk to them after our practice tonight, which we should probably get to."

He took Hermione's hand and pulled her up from the couch.

"You're brilliant, you know?"

"I know," she said cheekily, grinning at him.

They made it to the empty classroom where their practices were held to find Dumbledore there speaking with Harry and Ginny, who were both wearing large smiles.

"What's going on, professor?" Hermione asked.

"We have decided to move your practice to the quidditch pitch, this evening."

"But won't students be able to see us?"

"That has been taken care of. Enchantments have been put on it to keep what is happening inside the pitch secret. I have also had it arranged so that there is an obstacle course, of sorts, set up inside."

"That sounds brilliant!"

Draco was excited to get out of the same old classroom and do something a little bit different for the first time, and Hermione couldn't blame him.

Once Pansy and Blaise arrived Dumbledore led all of the students out of the castle and down the sloping grounds to the pitch. They passed no other students in the halls, which Hermione found strange.

Where is everyone?

I was just wondering the same thing. Dinner hasn't been over long, there's no reason for the halls to be this empty.

It's almost… eerie.

Dumbledore seems happy, maybe he just had it arranged for the other students to be out of our way for the evening.

He is a cunning man, who knows?

They stopped their conversation as they approached the entrance to the pitch. It was dusk, not quite dark, but not light outside either, which added to the strange atmosphere that Hermione felt since they left the classroom upstairs. She gripped her wand, feeling more comfortable now that it was in her hand and saw Draco and Pansy pull theirs out as well. Harry looked at them curiously before he pulled his out and Ginny and Blaise followed suit. For some reason they were all on edge.

"After you," Dumbledore said, a twinkle in his eye.

The students entered the pitch and all hell broke loose. Black cloaked figures were all over the place and the six friends fell into their training almost instantly.

Blaise rolled before he stopped and threw an inpendimenta jinx at a figure that was advancing on Ginny. She glanced at him and thrust her wand toward the same person, stunning them swiftly. Hermione dashed to the right, hiding behind a large object momentarily and then peeking around it, throwing a well-aimed blast of fire from her hands at a figure that was running at her. The person tripped and fell moments before being singed by the fire and she fired off a quick stunning hex at him, now sprawled on the ground. A stinging hex caught her on the arm and she hissed in pain before sprinting to a different covered area, as soon as she moved the place she was standing seconds before absorbed a stunner.

Draco was shooting icicle like object from his hands, but was frustrated as they seemed to be absorbed by the person before him, instead of hurting them. He suddenly went to his knees, slamming his hands into the ground and stalagmites made of thick ice shot up, forming a cage around the person. They shrieked in frustration and tried to melt their way out quickly, but the bars of their cage were so thick it would take a while. He gripped his wand again and took off running, trying to find Hermione and Harry, the two people that he had deemed as most important in any type of attack.

Harry was surrounded by stunned figures and looked gleeful, almost like this was the most fun he's had in a while and obviously didn't need his help. Pansy and Ginny were cornering three other figures and as Draco watched all of them fell to the ground, stunned. Blaise was walking around slowly, trying to find more attackers, glad that he was able to take out a few while assisting Harry, and Hermione was whipping an almost tornado like plume of heat around the last attacker, who seemed to be immune to her attack. She was getting more and more frustrated and dropped her hands, whipping out her wand and stupefying the person before they even realized the heat tornado had ended.

Silence, as all six friends looked at each other with wide grins.

Clapping suddenly started reverberating around the pitch and they spun around to see Dumbledore approaching.

"Good job! I'm very impressed."

"Sir…?"

"These kind, black robed people, are actually your teachers and other staff from the school. We decided to test you all to make sure you could handle yourselves, and you all did a wonderful job. Hermione, Draco, your elemental powers weren't working only because we didn't want you to be able to actually harm them. The staff are all wearing a special cloak that I recently designed in order to ward off your elemental power. I am going to be taking them back and storing them safely, so don't worry about your powers being useless in any other type of situation. If you were in an actual battle you both would have done some major damage! Let's go wake up the staff, yes?"

The students split up and walked around, muttering "Ennervate" every so often.

"Draco! This ice cage is magnificent! How did you even think to do this?"

The students and staff of Hogwarts approached the cage, which held the only teacher who didn't get stunned, and the only teacher still trapped; the rest were awake now.

"I was trying to attack with my power and it wasn't working, so I was getting frustrated. I thought maybe this person had some special magic that was able to deter my power, so I thought if I caged him we could check him out after."

The person in the cage pulled down his hood, and Snape stared out. He wasn't amused.

"I can't melt these bloody bars, they're too thick."

"I'll get you out, professor," Hermione said, rushing forward and heating the area with her power so the bars melted in mere moments.

"Amazing," Professor Flitwick muttered from beside them.

Now that everyone was awake and free, the students began to feel slightly awkward; they had just took out the entire staff of Hogwarts in less than ten minutes. Something Dumbledore didn't waste any time pointing out. The six friends blushed but were very proud of their accomplishments.

"That was so much fun."

"Hopefully it will be that easy during the war!"

"Whenever that happens."

"I wish we could do this more often. It was so nice to actually use our powers in a threatening situation."

"Let's live together!"

"Draco…"

"What!? Who do you want to live together?"

Hermione sighed. Draco really needed to learn when and how to bring things up without looking and acting like a crazy person.

"We were discussing it earlier, and we thought it would be brilliant if we all found a place together after graduation. With all six of us, it shouldn't be hard to afford a place big enough for all of us to live comfortably, and I don't know about you guys but I don't really want to be separated after school."

"I think it's a great idea!"

"We could have so much fun."

"I don't graduate this year, though."

Ginny sounded exceptionally sad about this.

"So live with us until you have to go back to school."

"Really?"

"Of course. And you could come back on holidays and everything. It would be your home, at least until after the war. I don't want to be away from you guys until we know everything is safe again. Look at what we did back there! We seriously rocked that."

"Let's do it."

Harry, though, seemed slightly reluctant.

"What's up with you, Harry?" Ginny asked, squeezing his hand.

"It's not that I don't think it's a good idea, it would be fun and we would all be safe, but what about Ron? He would feel so left out and abandoned."

"Let's worry about that when the time comes. If he can manage to not be an arse for five seconds than maybe he wouldn't even be in this situation in the first place."

Hermione couldn't help but agree and she noticed that there were students around again. Dumbledore had obviously arranged something so that they were busy before. Draco seemed to notice as well, he gave Pansy and Blaise a significant look and the three filtered away from Harry, Ginny and Hermione.

See you later, love.

Hermione smiled to herself and turned to Harry to continue talking about the Ron situation, but she was confronted by a group of sixth year Ravenclaw girls.

"Er… Hello."

"Hermione Granger! We heard a rumour that you have tattoos that you got in the muggle world and we were hoping we could see them."

"Who told you that?" Ginny said fiercely, stepping in between Hermione and the group of tattoo-fans.

"He said you have three!"

"He said two!"

"Well it's technically three, because he said the one on her stomach has a smaller one beneath it!"

"Who is he?" Ginny asked loudly again as Hermione's stomach started to feel uncomfortable.

"Please let us see!"

"I would rather not bare my midriff in the middle of the lawns," Hermione said, slightly stiffly, as the girls all had crestfallen looks.

"So it's true then?! That is so cool!"

Hermione had never been referred to as 'cool' and she blushed slightly.

"Who told you that?" Harry asked in his deep tones, stepping closer. All the girls began twittering about the fact that Harry Potter was speaking to them, most of them looking at him in awe.

"Ron Weasley, of course."

Rage filled Hermione's senses. Was he trying to get her and Draco caught?

Hermione's eyes met with Harry's and she saw the rage reflected back at her before he turned and marched away angrily.

"Oh, Merlin," Ginny mumbled before facing the group of girls again, who all looked bewildered at Harry's sudden, angry, departure. "Sorry, ladies, but we have some things to attend to," she said, before taking Hermione's hand and pulling her away.

"What is he playing at?" Hermione asked angrily, fuming, "Is he trying to call attention to our relationship?! If anyone who is pure-blooded saw this mark," she gestured to her arm, "they would instantly know what it was. Pansy, Ron and Blaise knew the moment they laid eyes on it. I have never been so angry with your brother, this even tops getting me and Draco tortured! It's been months, why hasn't he given it up already?!"

Ginny hummed in sympathy but didn't say a word as they entered the castle and tried to track down Harry.

Ron is telling people about my markings!

Are you serious?

Yes! I was just approached by a bunch of Ravenclaws who wanted to see my 'muggle tattoos' that Ron told them about.

I will kill that ginger, I swear.

Harry's gone to find him at the moment.

I'm going to look.

See you soon.

"Draco is not impressed."

"How does… oh never mind."

The girls approached the Gryffindor tower and Ginny made the decision to sneak into Harry's room and borrow his map. She hurdled back out of the portrait and led Hermione to a deserted lavatory to check the map, and after perusing it for a few moments she jabbed her finger at a bathroom closer to the head dorms than they were, and there was Harry and Ron, with Draco striding quickly down the corridor.

"Let's go," Hermione said, running in the direction of the bathroom. Once they were closer they could hear raised voices and Ginny grabbed her hand, stopping her and putting her finger to her lips.

"I'm not going to eavesdrop, Ginny."

"That's Harry yelling, he might be embarrassed if we just charge in there."

"He will be even more embarrassed to find out we are out here listening."

Ginny hushed her as Harry's voice rose.

"Have you completely lost your mind?! I don't know why you're out to get Hermione, Ron, but if people found out about this do you honestly think they would just let it lay?"

"I'm not out to get Hermione; I'm out to get this ferret."

Harry almost screamed in frustration.

"How many times do you have to be told this before it gets through your thick skull?! If something happens to Draco, something happens to Hermione! I won't let you ruin her life."

"I'm ruining her life?! What about this git?! He has her and doesn't even care about her!"

"Why would you assume that I don't care about her, Weasel?" Draco asked in a tone that signalled to Hermione he was just about to lose his self-control.

"Oh, please. She's a muggle-born. She's beneath you, less than the dirt you walk on. She's a know-it-all bookworm that could never make a man happy. Isn't that what you have been drilling into her head since we were eleven?!"

"It's different now," he said quietly, and Hermione strained her ears as she moved closer to the bathroom. "I don't believe any of those things. I have learned so much about her since September, don't you realize that? Do you think we just sit in silence in our common room constantly? We spend that time getting to know each other, and let me tell you right now, I love that girl more than anyone will probably ever realize, and if anyone does anything to hurt her, they will answer to me! You've done something incredibly stupid, again, Weasley, and if anything happens to her because of this you'll have to deal with me!"

"And me!" Harry yelled, "Now get out of my sight before I do something I'll regret."

The girls heard silence for a few moments before the door was thrust open and Ron stood before them, red in the face.

"I'm sorry, Hermione."

"Why did you do it, Ron?"

"I'm just… I don't know. I'm confused. I really didn't want you to be hurt by any of the things I said."

"Just please don't say anything else about my life to anyone. Anything."

Ron nodded and seemed to realize by Hermione's tone that he should just walk away, which he did, cursing silently under his breath.

"I can't wait to get out of this damn school," Draco said, coming out of the bathroom with an agreeing Harry behind him. "I'm sorry you had to hear that, girls."

Hermione smiled and entered Draco's embrace, happy that he would stick up for her, but hearing his admission of love was what was making her grin stupidly. They knew that each of them loved each other, but they weren't that couple that said it to each other on a regular basis. Harry was slightly red because he realized Hermione had heard Draco's words, but he was happy. Harry knew for sure now that Draco wouldn't let anything bad happen to her; he truly loved her. Harry didn't think Draco was even considering his own life when he worried about Hermione's; he was only worried about her safety and well-being.

"Well, I guess the living together question has been answered, I'll look at places with you guys as soon as we are out of this damn school. I don't even want Ron in my sight right now, and I'm not sure anything will change that. I'm sorry, Ginny, but his blatant disregard for Hermione's safety is disturbing to me. He is so hotheaded and blind to what he is doing, he's a liability and I can't have it."

"I understand, Harry. I'm worried about him though, you know when he feels out casted he goes off the deep end, when he feels left out… well just look at your fourth year. He didn't talk to you for months because of something out of your control."

"He didn't talk to me, but he didn't go out of his way to harm me."

"Well I think Hermione's marriage is a bigger blow than you getting a little more attention than him."

"I don't think he will say anything more, Ginny."

Ginny just shrugged her shoulders and smiled at them, "Let's go to your common room, yeah? Better than standing in the middle of the castle all evening.