Yay! I updated! (a loud imaginary crowd cheers) And it also a super long exciting chapter… (or so this writer thinks…)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter XI

When Hermione woke up the that morning, she practically jumped out of bed and washed herself quickly. Leaving her room, she was greeted by the sight of her master, sitting reading his newspaper. He gave her a brief glance, blank and unreadable. Trying to ignore his presence, she immediately walked towards the door. Not wanting to talk or even say anything at all. Grabbing the handle of the door, she couldn't stop herself to give him a small glance of her own which was unresponsive and unnoticed, he had simply resumed reading his newspaper. Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, she walked away quickly, not sure if it was from Malfoy or the anticipation of her somewhat small-minded mission.

*****

'Marget,' Hermione whispered, 'Can I talk to you?' 'Meet me in the stockroom.'
Funny how that somewhat had become a meeting room for her and her companions. 'I need to contact Annette and I have no idea how to do that.' Hermione knew she was talking rushed and unfocused, but somehow Margret understood her, her calm demeanor irking her just a tad bit for the moment. 'Don't worry she won't be in his office all day.' Margret spoke slow yet excited. 'His office?' Hermione gasped, not fully comprehending just what she had said. 'Yes, I thought you knew?' Margret asked confused by her reaction. 'No, well, yes but I had paid so little attention to it, I didn't really think about it.' But this was actually perfect. She couldn't be in a better position. 'I already spoken with her, she said, she wanted to meet you here when it was lunch time. It was really important.'
'You've spoken with her?' Hermione asked baffled. 'No, it was that boy…'
'Jeremy!?'
'Yes, that was his name.' Margret seemed not to be fazed by her reaction nor did she the problem. But even so, this meant even she trusted him. All the time that had passed and she still didn't know how he looked, Hermione groaned, she was the worse type of friend. 'Alright, I'll come back then. Thank you, Margret.' She hugged the elder lady; she really meant the last part. If it wasn't for her they would've never gotten this far. 'No. Thank you, Hermione.' She said, hugging her tightly back.

*****

'Was there some type of emergency?' Malfoy grumbled, watching as she placed the food dishes on the table in front of him. Obviously displeased that he had to wait for his breakfast because of her. 'Did you starve to death?' Hermione sneered back.
Obviously Malfoy had gotten in to a bad mood. The fact that they weren't any wiser and that his day would be delayed for nothing, annoyed him greatly. Hermione sighed, 'What is our next step?' She was asking that question more to herself then to Malfoy but nevertheless he answered her. 'Searching through his personal items, he never allows me anywhere near his office. So I suspect he keeps them there.' His tone somewhat harsh and was currently ignoring her, not looking at her when he spoke. 'What makes you think he would keep such information on paper?' Hermione asked, finding it all a bit unlikely and ludicrous. 'Why else would he keep me locked out?' He retorted back, obviously not knowing himself why. Hermione shrugged, 'Many reasons.'
'Even then I want to know. Whatever he is hiding, I want to find out what it is.'
She just nodded in agreement and remained silent not wanting to make the atmosphere any worse than it was. He ate his breakfast in silence and she simple stared. Watched him eat while he resumed to ignore her presence.

****

'Malfoy…'
He gave her disinterested glance and resumed clothing himself, knotting his tie in the mirror, watching her reflection intensely, something she could not see. He was preparing to leave.
'How did your mother die…?' Last night it had occurred to her she didn't know such an important detail.
'She… died peacefully.' He whispered, the question had clearly startled him. The sadness of the memory swept over his face, when he turned around. A tortured soul. '…a..' Hermione opened her mouth but closed it again, she didn't know if he knew she didn't actually meant that, but the aura in the room was heavy and full of despair and made it her aware that perhaps now was not the moment to ask him such things.

However the answer did raise a few more questions. If she had died peacefully then why did they say it was murder? They being the Malfoy themselves, and Malfoy had only accused his father of the crime. Somewhere Hermione got a nagging feeling there was much more going on than she was actually being lead on.

*****

She met Margret in the stockroom instead of Annette. 'Where is Annette? Don't tell me I missed her!'
'No, no. But I told the boy that I would be the one to meet her here, perhaps if she saw me walking around she would think something is wrong.'
'Oh…' Hermione let out a sigh of relieve. 'Thank god.'
Margret gave her reassuring smile. When the doorknob moved, they both held their breath a little, hoping to see the unruly curls of their redheaded friend. They were greeted by dark, attractive boy. Hermione started to panic, what were they going to say? She was pulling out blanks when it came to good excuses. She looked at Margret, who still had a warm smile plastered on her face, she seemed very relaxed. 'Ah! The boy!' She exclaimed happily.
'Oh! Jeremy?'
'You must be Hermione, Annette's friend.' His spoke in a polite manner and held out his hand to shake hers. Which Hermione took, giving him a polite smile in return, 'I didn't know you were coming too.' 'I wasn't going to come actually but I wanted to see her so badly.' He kind of blushed when he spoke about her. They were clearly in love with one another. 'Sorry if I'm an inconvenience.'
'No, of course not! You've helped us a great deal too.'
The next time the door was opened, Annette walked in quite nice attire, her old ragged clothes where nowhere to be seen. 'Jeremy! Hermione!' She smiled, hugging them both tight. Which both of them found a little odd but nevertheless complied, giving her a warm embrace in return. 'Hi, Margret!' She hugged her too. 'I didn't think all of you would be here.' She grinned, 'Gosh, I'm so popular!'

'Annette, I hate to be so forward but…' Hermione started feeling somewhat uncomfortable, why was she always the one to ruin the mood?
'Right, Hermione!' Annette answered cheery, unaware of Hermione's feelings of guilt. 'First of, I'm indeed in charge of his office together with some tart named, Isabel.' She made a face when she said the girl's name; clearly they did not get along very well. 'So I haven't been able to snoop around, but they told me she wouldn't be around all the time and that when I'll strike!'
'They…?' Hermione asked. 'Oh, members of the alliance.' She answered somewhat lighthearted. 'Annette, you are taking this far too lightly, this is dangerous, you know.' A male voice answered, Jeremy's voice sounded worried, his girlfriend just scoffed at what he said.
'He's right, Annette.' Hermione agreed but before she could continue their eldest friend spoke up. 'Either way,' Margret cut in, 'I have some news too, Mr. Malfoy is leaving in about a week from now, for about three days.'
'So?' Jeremy said, obviously not liking where this was going. 'So? So that's when we strike!' Annette pointed out, looking at him in utter disbelieve. 'We'll just have to think of something to get rid of Isabel.' She muttered to herself, scratching her hair in thought.

'I don't want you to take such high risks, Annette.' Hermione spoke up, looking directly at Annette when she spoke, ignoring every other person in the room. Hermione's voice was firm and strict, she had to use this voice every time in order for her to listen, as she had noted several times. 'I've been sitting around doing nothing, if anyone is going to take high risks, it will be me. You've done more than enough. You are already in far too deep.'
Jeremy agreed eagerly with Hermione, glad someone was using their head. 'How are you going to do that?'
'Hermione could take your place.' Margret stepped in, 'While you keep that girl busy, Hermione could sneak around, it would safer then you just going in by yourself.' 'Good idea, Margret.' Hermione was already forming an excellent plan in her head. 'I still don't like this.' Jeremy groaned but was silenced by Annette's hand which was making butterfly patterns on his chest while she hugged him again. Trickster, indeed.

'We'll meet in a week from today, the day after that, we'll strike.' Hermione announced. They all nodded in agreement.
'I think we better leave them to their selves.' Margret said, making her way towards the door.
Margret's eyes twinkled and she smiled at Hermione. Who gave her a strange stare in return, turning her head to look at the couple she immediately turned her head back around. Becoming a little flushed at seeing the couple her, who was clearly infatuated with one another, Hermione walked towards the door and mumbled a quick goodbye, a little sadden that she was not going to be able to talk to her friend.

'Wait! Hermione!' Annette said, walking towards her she whispered in her ear, 'Did you tell Jeremy about you working for Malfoy?'
'No…' She whispered back. 'Good, he doesn't know, let's keep it that way. If he did, I would never hear the end of it…'
It must be nice to have someone worry so deeply for you. 'You should tell him, though.'
'When the time is ripe I'll say it.' She whispered back, shrugging her shoulders at the thought of when she would say such a thing.

Hermione closed the door, wondering what she had been telling Jeremy instead. Annette was a girl full of secrets and it struck her she was a little too good at lying for her age. Whatever she had gone through it made her who she was today and Hermione was grateful for that because if it wasn't for her Hermione wouldn't know the things she knew today and she would definitely not be at this point.

*****

Hermione told Malfoy about their plan, who agreed that it was indeed the right moment, he offered to go in the office himself but Hermione declined the idea, saying his father would probably expect him to do so and would probably end up being hexed, since Lucius Malfoy was no fool and had enough experience to place certain spells on locks to keep specific people out. Malfoy had shrugged at her explanation, saying he had tried it before but he had no wand with him at the time.

'I'll lend you my wand.' He spoke up out of the blue. 'Excuse me?'
'You heard correctly.' He smirked, 'I'll lend you mine.'
'Why?' Hermione asked baffled at his words and confused by what his supposed reason could be. 'You're better at lifting curses then I.'
'That I know,' She confidently stated, 'But why give me yours?'
'I don't have any other that is not for the use of a servant and believe me those wands can't lift curses.'
'No, but they can do the dishes well though…' Hermione whispered sarcastically. 'So there you have it.'
'Won't you be worried I'll hex you?' She asked. 'No.' He simply answered. 'Why not?'
'Easy, first of all, even if you did hex me what would be your next step? Everyone knows that Aurors are send behind traitorous Muggles.' 'Traitorous?' Hermione snorted. Ignoring her he continued, 'Second, I know you simply won't hex me.' 'Oh, no? I won't?' Her sarcasm dripped of the words. Walking towards her he gave her his wand, which she did take but made no movements. 'Because you are better than that, Hermione Granger.' He said quietly using her full name for the first time since they had met, again.
They stared at each other for a while before Malfoy turned around. Hermione stood and aimed with his wand at his back. He stopped walking but did not turn back around to look at her, 'I know you won't do it.'
'Don't underestimate me, Malfoy.' She hissed. Turning his head to give her a somewhat unreadable but confident charade, 'I never did.' He answered back, he sounded perfectly calm.

With that he left the room and left Hermione alone with his wand. She stared at it; it felt foreign in her hand. Not just because it was his wand but also because it had such a long time since she held one. White's never gave the other one back and Malfoy never gave her one either. She used to be at one with her wand, wherever it were, probably destroyed, she thought, it had always been an extension of her arm, of her magic, of her power. It felt strange and yet exciting to feel magic course through her veins again. The magic of Malfoy's wand felt wild and untamed, it made her heart beat faster and her head spin. It would be better if she practice with it first before using it in the office of Malfoy's father. So she did.

*****

Malfoy stayed out longer than usual today. He had been acting odd a lot lately. There were long stares and even longer silences. It was unnerving and meddled with their concentration. The fact was that many questions still spun in her head, most of them he refused to answer when she asked. But there was a serene voice in her head saying that all would be explained when the time was right. She rolled her eyes at her own thoughts, she had just sounded like Sybill Trelawney, seriously how could she think like that? But she had a feeling that she would soon know, a feeling she could not deny not matter what her logic mind told her.

****

Lately she the feeling she was going mad. Perhaps it was because all she did was sit around in this room. She eyed Malfoy's luxurious room, she had envied it at one point but she had gotten so use to it now. The comfortable couch, how the chandelier would lit up the entire room, the most expensive furniture and the tall high windows. Her own personal room too. It was much nicer than her previous sleeping accommodations. Yet she felt as if she had just changed caged, fine golden one instead of an old rusty one, but forever and always a cage.

Malfoy kept her more locked in nowadays, sure if she insisted to leave or she gave the excuse she was meeting Annette or someone else he'd let her go. But others times he insisted to let others to the running for her, after all she was now his personal servant, she had to act like it too. Or so he told her.

His strange behavior was getting on her nerves.

It was well past midnight when she heard Malfoy entering his chambers. Hermione was already in bed but she couldn't sleep. For many reasons, for the past events, the current events and the future events, mostly the latter two kept her up. She told herself she couldn't do anything but wait for the future events. But the present events, she had no idea how to handle.

She heard a screeching noise and a loud thud, Malfoy uttering some curse words. Wondering what he was doing, she quietly got out of bed and opened her door soundlessly and looked through a small gap to see what he was doing. It almost seemed as if he was trying to be quiet, which if that was the case, he was doing an awful job at. 'Damn it…' He cursed again, when he tripped over the carpet, which was hard to do since it was flat, Hermione rolled her eyes at the sight. The great Malfoy… Seriously.
He dropped his coat on the ground and kicked off his shoes, clearly not caring where it landed as long as it was off. He stumbled towards her door, Hermione's eyes widened; he wasn't coming here was he? Just when she thought the worse had happened he took off his shirt.
And he unbuckled his pants. And now his pants was somewhere down his knees.
Hermione flushed a deep red and back off from the door, staring at the doorframe with her mouth wide open, she waited until he would enter.

To her relief he went inside the door next to hers. The bathroom. Relieve washed through her, cursing herself to think such ridiculous thoughts. Honestly, Hermione, you are going daft.
Letting out a sigh of relieve she walked back towards the door, where an awful strong odor of alcohol entered her nostrils. He had been drinking, well it explained his weird behavior, Hermione thought, or maybe not, she mused. Oh well, she thought, going back to her bed she pulled the covers back over her head and blocked out all her thoughts.

Her ears stayed focus on what Malfoy was doing, he had taken a shower, the longest one in history, or so it had felt for Hermione. She didn't know what on earth he was doing now. She heard the door open and hoped he would soon just climb into bed so she too could sleep; she wouldn't be able to if he kept walking around. He wasn't really good at being silent either.
When her bedroom door was opened with a loud clank of the handle meeting the door, Hermione immediately stood up.

Before her was Malfoy, barely dressed and still drinking directly from a bottle of Firewhiskey.
His face was, as always, unreadable. He was standing in lazy position, slouching against the door frame.

Her heart start beating so fast, Hermione was certain it was going to jump out. That or she was certain that at least it was showing through her throat, where there was forming a lump she could not swallow. Cold shivers ran down her spine and she could not suppress her fear.
She didn't want this… A mantra that she had said so many times before, in her head, out loud, she had even mouthed the words over and over again, until she was certain she had said it enough. Malfoy looked directly at her, studying her features, his eyes meeting hers.
He could see her fear, she was sure of that. Hell, he could smell it.
'I already told you to not fear me.' His voice sound rough and raw, he didn't slur his words as she had expected. Even though he couldn't move properly, his head had somewhat remained remotely clear. 'You have my wand, don't you?' He assured her.

She did indeed, underneath her pillow. Fear had made her paralyzed and it occurred to her that she hadn't even thought about using it, all logic had left her head. She nodded but made no movements to take it. 'You really… Aren't use to it anymore.' Hermione arched an eyebrow to what he said. 'You don't even have the reflexes to take a wand and hex someone. They really… got to you, didn't they, Granger?
Even when he said her last name it did not sound menacing at all, it was more as if he had observed her for a long time and was now simply stating a fact. 'And I was going to let you walk into my father's...' He didn't even finish the sentence as he lay his head back, laughing at his own stupidity. 'I can handle myself.' Hermione defended. 'I see that.' He retorted back, not impressed at all by what she had just said. 'You…' Hermione stopped herself from talking; she was searching for the words. For what explanation she wanted to give, for the reason she wanted to give an explanation…

'I know you are strong.' He said. Which made her look him in his bright blue eyes, waiting for his next words, 'You don't have to explain me anything, remember? I'll make sure you get some practice…' He slowly got up, he almost wanted to walk over her but hesitated and then took a step back, turning around. 'Goodnight.' His voice was softer now, sincere. 'Goodnight.' She muttered back.
He didn't close the door but left it open on a small crack.

She didn't know when he fell asleep or if he had felt asleep at all. But she had been awake until she saw the sun come up. She must've fallen asleep somehow because when she woke up, after a short morning sleep, it was to her utter confusion that she had to conclude that Malfoy was not in the room and was long gone. I guess he's a lot quieter when he's sober.
Feeling lightheaded she had to hold on to her doorframe to stop herself from falling over.
Must be because of the lack of sleep, she had had that before. The room was an utter mess. His clothes were everywhere and it looked as if he had been looking for something because everything was out of order. Sighing at the mess, she lifted the table put the chairs next to it accordingly. Well it explained the loud noises from last night. Thought she was sure he hadn't been anywhere near his desk, she looked at the mess confused. Why did he do that? All of the papers, nothing she hadn't seen before, she had searched them thoroughly.

'He must've been in a hurry.' She muttered. And she was going to practice—use the wand, Hermione, use the wand. Her head all of a sudden felt a lot brighter and her senses were sharper. Taking the wand she cleaned up the mess in less than ten minutes. Realizing she should spend her time practicing more useful spells then cleaning ones. She started to practice a few spell and was soon accustomed to her new wand. She did have to fight the urges to just run off and leave it all behind her but she knew she couldn't. That was the hazard of making friends; she had learned that more than once yet she kept falling for the same trick.

*****

Malfoy was even less at home than before, he seemed to avoid her at all cost and spoke to her in his usual Master-tone, a tone he would normally spare for others than her. He confused her so much it terrified her, wondering what could have changed. She hadn't. Perhaps he had?

*****

Today was the day. Hermione had safely hidden her wand, well, Malfoy's actually. She had met with the others, surprisingly all of them again, last night. And they had somewhat of a plan. Malfoy was had been at home since his father left. They had hardly spoken the last couple of days. Perhaps it had been this entire mission that had been eating him because last night he was back to his usual self. Annoying and childish. He had let her summon up every spell in the book. All of them he, surprisingly, knew too. He didn't allow her one mistake and mocked her by using her know-it-all tone to read to correct answer out loud when she didn't believe him.

Musing at the memory of last night Hermione took a deep breath, walking quietly towards Lucius Malfoy's personal office. She was relieved that the halls were clear, something Margret had provided, she said she had a few tricks up her sleeve to keep the others busy.
When she entered she hear two girl arguing, one voice belonged to Annette and the other, presuming, to the girl she disliked so much, as she had mention more than once yesterday, Isabel.
She had told Hermione that Lucius always demanded that someone was there to attend his wing, so the plan was to keep her and Isabel there raise no suspicion. Soon they would both leave, off to do his personal chambers.

After some persuading from Annette's part the girl finally agree, Hermione could understand why she didn't like the girl. She was somewhat snobbish and looked somewhat dull underneath; she looked like grey mouse but could turn herself in to cat with rather sharp claws. Hermione had encountered those a lot when she was younger. You always had to be careful around them. When Annette closed the door with a loud thud, to make sure whoever was around to know that they had just left the office.
Hermione smirked at her friend; she wasn't easily frightened that much was certain. She didn't think that all those months back, that her somewhat timed causal friend was actually such a hellcat.

Walking towards his desk, she took out her wand and muttered a few disarming spells, some were useless others quite not. She looked at the papers, where she could lead off that he was still very much concerned about Hogwarts. Rolling her eyes, she figured he would have maybe something more valuable lying around in his drawers. She was pleasantly surprised when they opened quiet easily, but then again she knew a lot of spells. A lot. From during the days when…
Let's not go there, Hermione, now is not the time, she thought to herself, shaking her head.

Nothing.

There wasn't anything in here that could even slightly concern Malfoy. Or herself, it was all about… further law development and other vile thing to do to muggles. Nothing that could help them, there was nothing about his wife or even his son. Clearly he was keeping his secrets somewhere else. Which meant that she actually gave him more credit than his own son, and he indeed would not hold on to evidence.

'Well, well, well…' A voice sneered. 'What do we have here?'

Hermione froze when she heard a voice behind her. She knew that voice, even if she hadn't heard it in a long time. Wanting to turn around and point her wand at the man, her arm was stopped in mid-movement and she was turned back around, her face slammed on to the desk. His grip on her was stern and she couldn't even budge. She let out a painful gasp and he made her let go of Malfoy's wand, she heard the wood fall on to the ground, confirming her doom.
'My, my, what a catch.' His voice sound greatly amused but held obvious contempt at his prey. 'Not just any Mudblood, ' She could feel his breath tickle her ear, he was now leaning in on her, grabbing her face further to the side, he inspected it a little to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him. 'Granger, Potter's little mudblood friend.'
Hermione didn't utter a word, she tried to remain calm and think logic instead of fear and anger taking over her mind.
'Hermione, was it not?' He asked, but Hermione stayed unresponsive, even when he turned her arm painfully. I have to get my wand back, she thought, but how? She couldn't even move, his weight was upon her.

'I believe I asked you a question, did I not?' He aimed with the tip of his wand on her cheek, to emphasize his threat. 'Y-yes.' She muttered unwillingly, not being able to do anything but to submit, she fell a pang of defeat go through her. This was not supposed to happen. He forcefully turned her around on her back and she was now face to face with him. Her blood ran cold when she him smirk at her obvious distressed look. So many questions ran through her head but she tried to keep all of her focus on the man hovering before her, eyeing his every move. His wand was still pointed towards her but he made no further movements, he too was eyeing her intently.

Pom-pom-pom-pommm… Or however you write that… I dunno! Alright, I want to know your thoughts on this chapter and who it could possibly be? I mean it! I want reviews…(said in a whiny voice, pouting at the end.)

Just let me know what you think! Oh and I'll try to update a bit sooner, so you guys won't have to wait an entire week to who it is and also just because it's fun when people update sooner then usual…- I am babbling... (bows head) Thank you for reading, leave a review…