Hallo friends, This chapter is not as long as I wanted it to be, however I've been quite busy with school and I wanted to get a chapter out before i was engulfed by my school books and papers to write. That said, hopefully I don't take forever with the next chapter. A heads up, in the past few chapters, I've somewhat forgotten how Hermione is supposed to act due to her upbringing, which is why she acts the way she does in this chapter. How you all like it, please review!

~All of this world belongs to JK Rowling

It took a week, and Hermione was obsessed. When classes were finished, Hermione spent her time in the library. When her homework was finished, she hit the books: Trying to find anything that she could on Nicholas Flamel. Sometimes she was alone and someone she dragged Harry and Ron with her. They often brought Ron's wizard chess board with them and they played while Hermione skimmed and read book after book.

However, no matter what book she looked through, she could not find anything about the man. Why all the secrets? Hermione wondered. If something was that dangerous, why keep it in a castle full of children? Why have it guarded by Fluffy? What if someone got hurt? Got bit? How would they have explained that?

But no matter how much she wondered, Hermione could not wrap her mind around it. She needed help. Not from Ron nor Harry, but someone who could understand this.

The following Saturday, they were nearly at the end of November and there was a quidditch game that afternoon: Ravenclaw vs Hufflepuff. Hermione hoped she could catch Draco before he went down to the pitch. She ran to the owlery after breakfast, knowing Draco always stopped there after breakfast. "Draco," Hermione said, out of breath and panting a bit from all the running she had done.

Draco stopped short. He hadn't spoken to his childhood friend is nearly a month, and things were still awkward between one another. He still felt she was a traitor for befriending the stupid scar head and weasel. But he had to admit, not to anyone just to himself, that he missed her. They went from speaking and laughing with one another everyday to barely paying any attention to one another. Draco knew this part was more his fault than hers, but he would not admit that either. He knew he had a reputation to uphold, and being friends with a Gryffindor was not part of the reputation. "Granger," Hermione unintentionally flinches, sensing the jealousy as he spoke her last name. He only ever called her by her last name when he was angry with her.

Hermione took a step back, her lips falling open then closing again. "Uhm," She felt sick to her stomach, she knew their friendship was hanging on by a thread. "I need your help." She managed to get out while keeping her breakfast down. Draco looked different, she noticed. He was still pale and his face had always been sort of grim. But this Draco was different. He was colder.

Draco walks forward passing Hermione and rolls his eyes. "Can't ask boy wonder and the ginger for help?" He kept walking and Hermione was annoyed. She had dealt with this Draco, they had grown up fighting one another. Whether it be with words or fists, even though Draco was stronger, Hermione held her own. Now she grabs for his arm and pulls him back to her. He looked appalled and she looked annoyed. Anyone witnessing the two might have found it comical, such a small girl standing up to a venomous looking boy.

"Stop being a git. I don't care if you're angry with me Draco! There's no reason to be mad! I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing remember?" She narrowed her eyes at the silvery boy and Draco smirked. There it was, Draco thought. This was the Hermione he knew. She was fired up and he wasn't about to stop her. They were alone so Hermione didn't care about keeping her voice low. "You think I care about "boy wonder and the ginger"?" She laced her words with poison as she used Draco's words. "You think I truly care about them? No. I'm doing all of this for us. Because our parents asked us too. I'm acting like the goody goody Gryffindor because it's what is "expected of me". I hate it. I hate living with those muggleborns and It makes me sick to have to eat with them. I'm friends with Potter and Weasley because I need to in order to stay close with Harry. I haven't changed Draco, much to your belief." She glared at the Slytherin and he smiled. His Hermione was still here.

"What do you need help with?"

That weekend, Draco and Hermione stayed cooped up in the library, researching. Hermione confessed to Draco about the three headed dog and about the trap door she had seen. He cringed while she spoke, warning her she should probably not be meddling with this sort of thing. Their parents had warned them about Dumbledore and how he was not to be trusted.

By the end of the weekend, they still did not have any information. What could be so important to be hidden in the castle? Sunday, Hermione said goodbye to her best friend and made her way to Gryffindor Tower. Inside the common room, all of the first years were waiting for her. The smile that had been permanently on Hermione's face the entire weekend slid off. "Uh, what's up?" Hermione says, slowly putting her bag on the table and taking one of the chairs.

"Have you been hanging out with Malfoy this entire weekend?" This was Harry. Hermione was confused, so what if none of them were friends with the snakes? That did not mean she couldn't have some. Still confused she nods her head slowly. It's not like it was a secret, they were quite visible in the center of the library with their table stacked with books.

She takes out a piece of parchment that had her potions essay on she wanted to read over. The group was grumbling to one another. "Is it a problem I was?" Hermione simply says. "Draco and I have been friends for a while." She says, even though they were friends since birth. It was weird to think you knew someone your entire life, for them to be like a brother, and then to have your parents want you to marry them. Would it be like marrying a brother? Hermione wondered. She cringes slightly.

"Guys, it really isn't such a big deal." Hermione stopped reading in order to glance over towards Miranda, the muggleborn child she had spent so much time avoiding the semester thus far. Miranda was in one of the arm chairs, reading by the fire.

"Hermione he hates us!" Ron whines as the group dispersed and Ron and Harry came to sit with Hermione. She rolls her eyes, and puts her essay down.

"He doesn't hate me." She says and rolls her eyes. When they don't speak for several moments, Harry leans in closer, asking the one thing she knew he wanted to know. "Did you tell him about..." He trailed off, not wanting any of the others to hear him. Hermione knew she had to lie.

She nods her head and rolls the parchment. "No, we were just working on homework. He wanted to work on potions mostly. Plus he needed some pointers on how to help Pansy, which I helped him. He doesn't know what were doing, not like it matters. I haven't found any information on it!" She huffs and excuses herself, wanting to take a bath before bed that night. As Hermione walks up the stairs to the girl's dormitories, Miranda follows her up the stairs.

"Hermione?" Not expecting anyone, she jumps and nearly lets out a scream. Nearly.

"Y-yes?" She says, hand over her heart, trying to get it to beat at a normal pace. She silently scolded herself, she shouldn't be so jumpy.

She notices it's Miranda quickly in the dim candle light. The thin girl sighs. "It makes me sad to think you're going backwards." She left off with that and Hermione cocks her head to the side.

"I can't say I know what you mean..."

Miranda takes a step towards her, but she does not move. Hermione knew she had spent over the past three months standing near this girl and the other muggleborns, she couldn't seem like they still had an effect on her. "I thought you were getting better, it seemed like you didn't care about blood superiority any longer. You were taking steps forward!" Miranda sighs and picks up a large black cat that had wandered in on the two girls. "Hey brookie." She snuggles her cat for a moment, then turns back to Hermione. "One weekend with Draco and you're already back to how you were at the beginning of the year."

This annoyed Hermione. She didn't really know why, but it did. She was ticked off and angry. Miranda did not understand how Hermione had grown up, how she lived. Hermione shakes her head at the girl. "You don't understand," Hermione takes a step toward the dorms. "I never changed in the first place."

Nightmares plagued Hermione that night. They started out with Hermione lost in the forbidden forest. She had no idea why she was there, but she was. The night sky was dark and moonless and her heart beat wildly in her chest. Trees stood high in the sky, canopying Hermione. She stumbles around, climbing over fallen logs and hoping over tiny streams. An unusual rustle startles her and she falls, scraping her leg against a large rock. "Ahhhh..." She heard someone screaming in the background, coming from an area she just left. Her heart beat frantically against her rib cage, so much it hurt. "Help, help!" She heard the voice again, unsure on who it was. The voice kept screaming, sometimes it sounded like Draco, other times Harry or Ron.

Hermione was sweating. And she was afraid. It was very seldom when Hermione was afraid, and she would often put on a tough face rather than admit when she was. However this was one of the times she would scream in from the heavens. She wanted to get out, she needed to get out. Taking off full force, Hermione runs in an as much of a straight line as she could. Hopefully she would stagger out of the woods soon and see the friendly castle any moment. She needed to see the castle. She was so afraid.

A line of trees block her way and she turns and runs straight into a man. He was tall and pale. He had dark hair and even darker eyes. "Who, who-who are you?" Hermione manages to get out. He smiles at her and takes a step forward. His lips turn downward into a grimace.

"Stop looking me up." Hermione takes a step back afraid.

"Are you Nicholas Flamel?" Hermione asks, her confidence back, no longer afraid.

The man backs away. "Stop looking for information on me! It won't do you any good! What's hidden should stay hidden!" He keeps backing away, as if he wanted nothing more than to be away from Hermione.

"Wait!" She calls after him, wanting to catch up with him. However, when she turns a corner, she stumbles down a small hill and falls into darkness...

Hermione sits straight up in bed, a thin layer of sweat spread over her skin. Her heart hammered inside her chest and sits crisscrossed, trying to calm her shaking body. Why? Why did she have to have that dream?

Getting the feeling of being watched, Hermione looks over and finds Fay sitting up in her bed as well. "You okay?" She whispers. Hermione nods. Her heart was already slowing.

"What time is it?" Hermione whispers back. Fay shrugs and glances out the window next to her.

"Either really late, or really early." She shrugs again. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Hermione nods. "Why are you awake?"

Fay shrugs, Hermione notices she likes to shrug a lot. It was such a muggle thing to do, Hermione wonders if she picked it up from Miranda or one of the other muggleborns. "Sometimes I just wake up." Hermione nods, her mind swimming with information from her dream.

Was that really Nicholas Flamel? And if so, why did he want her to stop searching for information? She wasn't too sure. One thing was certain, however, Hermione was more fired up than ever to find out what Fluffy was guarding.