Chapter 11

A/N: *nosewrinkle* So much SNOW! *sigh* And there's more coming. As a consolation for the weather, here's a chapter!

Originally, I had left her talk with Harry and Ron as it was in the last chapter and moved on, but some people said they were excited about the confrontation, so I felt bad for leaving it out... I put a little snippet in this chapter to make up for it.

As always, thanks to arrandomness for being a wonderful beta reader! And thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, and alerted!

~Frosty

"Hermione!" Luna said happily, drawing the other woman into the house with a hug.

"Hi Luna," Hermione said with a big smile. It was the day of Luna's housewarming party, and Hermione was taking the opportunity to take a little break from all the stress of looking through books. Ron had been right, she was willingly drinking with Malfoy – again, after how poorly it had gone the last time they had both been under the influence of alcohol together, she needed a break.

Neville walked into the room, smiling at Hermione and the other guests entering behind her. There was a brief period of hugs all around before they made their way out to the garden, where Luna had set a lovely table for everyone to enjoy their lunch at.

"Hermione, I have something for you," Luna told her happily as she settled into the seat beside the brunette. Hermione was feeling a little bit light headed, so she was doing her best to sit and smile like she wasn't feeling like passing out, she didn't want to worry her friends.

"What is it?"

Luna walked into the house for a second before coming back out with a pair of expensive looking men's shoes.

"Luna..." She started, unsure if she wanted to ask, but having a dreadful feeling she knew where those shoes had come from.

"I think you know where these belong, I found them outside the restaurant we ate at a while ago," the blond said with her usual dreamy smile.

Ginny chose just that moment to plop into the seat on the other side of Hermione, dragging Harry behind her. "Hermione, Harry won't tell me what you're keeping from us!" She hissed, poking the brunette in the ribs. "Does this have something to do with Malfoy?"

Hermione winced at the reminder of the unpleasant conversation she'd had with her friends after Malfoy had left.

"Why is it you've told Malfoy about your dire health but not your best friends?" Harry asked for what felt like the hundredth time. She could only keep giving him the same answer for so long before she snapped and just kicked the two of them out of her flat.

She took a deep, calming breath before she answered. "I didn't tell him anything, he told me what was wrong with me."

"So you expect us to believe that Draco Malfoy did something nice for you, a Muggleborn, when there was nothing in it for him?" Ron's lack of faith in Malfoy would've been insulting if she hadn't known the blonde while he was in school. He wasn't that person anymore and Ron needed to understand that people could – and did - change.

"He caught me when I fell. There was nothing in it for him, and he still risked my Mudblood contamination to stop me from getting hurt. Does that sound like the Malfoy you know from school?" Both her friends flinched a little when she called herself a Mudblood, but they knew not to argue the small things when she was in this kind of mood.

"If you trust him, I can... avoid voicing my doubts about him," Harry said reluctantly, ignoring the outraged look on Ron's face. "But if he puts one foot out of line, I'll come up with a reason to throw the git in Azkaban."

Hermione smiled at her friend and gave him a hug. Ron still looked irritated, but at Hermione's glare over Harry's shoulder, he nodded his agreement to Harry's terms and held out his arms for a hug as well.

Another, harder poke in her ribs brought Hermione back to the present. "Hermione! I asked if this had something to do with Malfoy?" The redhead tried again, more insistently. The girl was worse than the gossip columnists that had been harassing the Golden Trio for years!

The brunette looked away from all of her friends, towards the dense plants not far in the distance. She didn't want to answer the redhead's questions because she knew Ginny would start giving her the same worried, pitying look Ron and Harry had been giving her ever since they'd found out about the Naiad thing. They'd been hovering near her whenever they caught sight of her, as if she was going to collapse – which was entirely possible, but she wasn't used to being treated like glass. Hermione was used to fighting alongside her friends, not being coddled! They were stifling her as they tried to protect her.

Hermione banished the shoes Luna had handed her back to her flat, and stood up. "I'm going for a walk," she muttered, heading off into the lovely garden Luna and Neville had cultivated. She was supposed to get away from home to spend some time forgetting her problems, not explaining everything to a whole new group of people. Harry and Ron knew what was going on, she had told them everything and that was enough. They were treating her like a porcelain doll, and she wouldn't be able to stand it if everyone started treating her that way.

She wandered what seemed like a path through the fields of plants that surrounded the house for as far as the eye could see. Lost in her thoughts, Hermione failed to notice that she was getting deeper and deeper into the field, and the plants were getting taller and taller, until they were well over her head.

Hearing a twig snap somewhere in the distance, Hermione suddenly became aware of how dark it was getting. For just after noon in the late summer, it was awfully dark. Glancing around, she realized that the sun was blocked out by large, sharp edged leaves. The path behind her seemed to have disappeared, and when she tried to push her way back through the way she had come, the leaves took slices out of her hands and arms.

She pulled out her wand and tried to blast her way through them, but the plants grew back as fast as she could destroy them. Heart pounding and still feeling a little light-headed, Hermione turned and faced the only clear path through the plants. It seemed she could only go forward, not back.

Taking a quick steadying breath and glancing wearily over her should one more time to make sure the plants hadn't decided that she could go back after all, Hermione walked the way the foliage seemed to be herding her – she could only hope she wasn't headed to something more dangerous than sharp plants.

The smell of stagnant water began to draw her attention through the panic she was feeling. She paused for a second, once again glancing wearily at the sharp plants behind her, but they had closed off the path and formed a solid wall behind her, but there they stopped; they seemed to have pushed her to wherever they'd wanted her to go.

Shrugging, Hermione continued to walk, noticing that the smell was getting stronger as she continued to move forward.

The leaves she was walking on crunched loudly into the disturbingly complete silence that had surrounded her since she had stopped fleeing the plants. The clearing she was walking into was completely empty and huge, with a slight dip in the middle and a bed of brown leaves, but that didn't explain where the smell of stagnant water was coming from.

Hermione took another step towards the middle of the clearing, and screeched as she felt cold, slimy water soaking through her shoe.

Looking down in confusion and annoyance, Hermione gasped. Laid out before her was the source of the stagnant smell, there was suddenly a lake taking up almost the entire clearing. It was full of seaweed and dead plants and appeared to be completely devoid of life.

Despite its appearance, Hermione was curious; why would there be some sort of spell hiding something like this lake? Why would someone waste the energy to cast the spell? It made sense that this lake was somehow important, but there was no way it could be the one she was looking for, that would be too easy.

As she reached for her wand to dry her shoe, Hermione moved her hand enough to cause one of her scratches to reopen and drip a few drops of blood into the lake. Suddenly, the dead, stagnant water was gone, replaced with lively, clear water full of small fish and surrounded by frogs and bugs. The whole clearing was suddenly alive with life.

The lake seemed to be lit from within and it was calling to her. Unable to resist, Hermione slipped off her shoes and dove into the clear liquid, relishing in the cool feel of the water on her skin, heated from her trek through the field.

As she swam, it seemed like every bubble was caressing her as they made their way to the sunlit surface. The first gasp of air she took as she broke the surface seemed to completely rejuvenate her. Hermione knew that she wasn't going to have fainting spells anymore, and her birthday was no longer going to be something she had to fear.

As she floated on her back near the middle of the lake, Hermione noticed something bright white out of the corner of her eye. Turning and treading water, she stared in awe at a large white manor with many windows sparking in the sun. There was only a small stretch of perfectly manicured lawn between the lake and a side wall of the structure.

She waded out of the water and walked across the grass to the door. There was a big, gold knocker in the shape of a snake with emeralds for eyes in the middle of the huge double doors. At least the gold kept it from being entirely Slytherin.

The intimidating door creaked open and a small House Elf peeked out at her with shock. "You is here!" It exclaimed happily, grabbing her hand and dragging her into the room.

"We is waiting for yous for decades!" Another elf yelled as it came running excitedly into the room.

Hermione was quickly surrounded by overexcited elves, all of them exclaiming that they'd been waiting for her. She watched, bewildered, as they brought her dry clothes, and her protests were ignored as she was dragged by the hand up an impressive staircase into an extravagant bedroom with a huge four poster bed facing a wall made up almost entirely of windows.

She stared in awe out the windows, almost forgetting that she was dripping all over the expensive looking antique hardwood floors. A chill drew her attention back to her wet state, so Hermione shucked her clothes off and put on the robes the elves had supplied her with, they were more formal and frilly than anything she would have worn by choice, but they were very soft and made of a light, flowing material that seemed almost like it wasn't there.

Her wet clothes disappeared the second they were on the floor, and Hermione made a mental note to have a talk with these elves about alternative options to their enslavement. She was about to exit into the hallway in search of the elves when a silver stag flew through the window and landed in front of her.

"Hermione! Where are you?" Harry's frantic voice came out of the incorporeal animal. With her birthday so close, him and Ron had been watching her every movement like hawks, looking for any hint that she was going to pass out and never awaken. She was glad that worry would no longer be necessary.

She glanced down at her watch; she'd only been gone for... five hours? Somewhere between her walk and the lake, it seemed that she'd lost quite a large chunk of time. Everyone must be beside themselves!

An elf popped into existence right in front of her. "There are people in the forest looking for yous. They getting all cut up from the plants. You want us to let them in?"

"No, I'm going to go out and meet – what's wrong?" Halfway through her sentence the poor elf started tearing up.

"You just got here and now yous is leaving again!" The little creature wailed, grabbing Hermione around the knees and burying its face in the no-doubt expensive robes she had been supplied with.

"This isn't the Delamater Manor, is it?" She asked wearily.

The elf nodded eagerly. "This is Delamater Manor and yous is a Delamater, else you never would have been let in!" It said excitedly, tears forgotten.

"I promise I'll come back here, but I have to go tell my friends I'm okay." Hermione said determinedly before apparating away.

She popped into existence into the middle of Luna's yard. "Hermione!" A streak of red yelled as it crushed her in a hug.

"Ginny!" Hermione laughed, trying to wriggle out of the other girl's grasp so that she'd be able to breathe.

"We were so worried! Where did you go? The boys are still looking for you," Ginny rambled off, too fast for Hermione to catch. Then she was once again a streak of red as she darted off in the direction of the path.

"Harry, Ron, Neville, she's back!" Ginny screeched, at an ear popping decibel, causing Hermione to flinch and the boys to come running out of the foliage.

"Where were you?" Harry demanded, looking both relieved that she was fine, but annoyed that she had disappeared without a word and worried them.

Hermione grinned hugely at him. "I found what I've been looking for."

Harry and Ron's eyes widened before the both tackled her, glad that their friend was no longer in danger. They didn't say it, but they were probably also glad that Hermione didn't need to go anywhere near Malfoy anymore.

Of course Ginny harassed them all, demanding to know what was going on and where Hermione got the robes she was wearing, but the trio kept silent, knowing their redheaded friend had a tendency to gossip and they didn't want it spread around about Hermione's heritage; they'd all had more than enough publicity for several lifetimes.

The rest of the housewarming party passed in a blur of laughter and relief for Hermione. She may have overindulged a little bit with the wine, but that was probably because Ginny seemed to be intent on keeping her friend's glass full - probably in hopes that the alcohol would loosen Hermione's tongue and get her to blab about the secret that she was keeping from everyone.

Apparating into her flat after the party, Hermione stumbled over something sitting on the floor in her entranceway. Her balance was already compromised, so she ended up sitting on her butt and glaring at the offending object.

"Stupid Malfoy's shoes," she muttered, slurring slightly. She kicked them over against the wall where she wouldn't trip over them again. "Even his shoes are evil. That's probably why he wanted them back so badly; it's hard to find genuinely evil shoes."

She spent an extra minute glaring at the evil shoes before she crawled over to the sofa and used it to pull herself back onto her feet.

Once standing, she tottered over to her writing desk in the library and messily scrawled a quick note.

Malfoy,

Your bloody evil shoes nearly killed me. Luna had them the whole time, now they're lurking in my damn entranceway lying in wait for when I let my guard down. Come and get them before I'm forced to retaliate; they won't survive.

She didn't bother to sign or read over the note, just tied it to the waiting owl and sent it off, hoping he came to get the shoes before they tried to kill her in her sleep or something.

Draco tiredly ran his hand through his hair and sighed as he stared at the paperwork in front of him. The stuff was never-ending; he'd been sitting in his desk scowling at it for hours as he filled out the endless pile.

A tapping at the window drew his attention away from the stressful rectangles. His eyebrows drew together as he read the letter, then he burst out laughing, continuing until he needed the help of a chair to hold him up. What in the world was going on with Granger? She sounded insane.

Concerned for his favourite pair of shoes, and eager to make fun of the brunette's apparent bout of insanity, Draco grabbed a handful of Floo powder and called out Granger's address. He was intent to retrieve his footwear before she found it necessary to 'retaliate' against the defenceless things.

A/N 2: Congratulations to Loslote for guessing the Manor was next to Luna's new house way back in chapter 6! *bigeyes* Was I too obvious or are you just a good guesser?

~Frosty