Pulling it open angrily, he was met with the sight of Hermione, slumped in a ironwork chair. Draco stopped still, unsure of whether she was dead or not. She fretted slightly in her sleep. Malfoy stared at her indignantly. He had been folding away diligently for the past hour and she had been taking a nap?

"Granger."

No response.

"Granger!" he shouted, still stood in the doorway. Her eyes flew open and she groped for her wand jumping to her feet she had assumed a fighting stance in a flash. Looking around her however, she saw only the tall and angular outline of Malfoy.

"What?" she yelped. "What is it? Snatchers? Where's my wand?"

"Relax." She could tell Malfoy was trying not to laugh. "I just came to see where you were."

Heaving a huge sigh of relief, Hermione dropped her arms back to her sides and straightened up. "Do you think, next time, you could just shake me or something? Not come out here shouting the house down?"

His lip quirked. "We'll see." he answered, and he stood aside to let her pass, holding out his arm graciously, to invite her in.

"Hmmph!" she said, and she stomped past him with her head held high.

The warmth of the flat hit her like a hug. She hadn't realised how cold it was outside. She had been too tired to really care.

"Sit down." Malfoy told her. "I'll get my kusudama and whatever pitiful attempt you made."

Hermione threw herself down of the large sofa. Pulling her legs onto the seat as well, she closed her eyes again. Why was he so obsessed with their little contest? Couldn't they pick it up in the morning? She yawned.

"Wake up." an angry voice told her. "I'm awake. Why aren't you!"

She smiled. "Go away Malfoy, I'm too tired."

He pushed her legs off the sofa. Opening her eyes to glare at him, she sat up and drew her legs up under her. "Fine." she said sleepily. "Fine, I'm awake."

"Good. Stay that way." he snapped, turning again towards the kitchen. He was quite interested to see what it was she had made. He knew it would be nowhere near as good as his, as she had used just one sheet of parchment, whereas he had used sixty. It was simple maths that his would be better.

Picking up his ball of flower heads carefully, he admired how well he had managed without even using fixing charms. It had taken him much longer to do... but it was worth it. He didn't want her trying to knock off points for using extra magic. He then pulled down the napkin curtain to see what it was she had made. He was met with a small paper dragon. He smiled. Turning back to the sitting room, he saw that Hermione was, again, asleep.

***

She awoke to see sunlight streaming through the curtains. For a moment she did not remember where she was and panic woke her up more completely before she was able to remember that Malfoy had 'rescued' her. It was a novel thought.

Sitting up in bed, she looked around. The room was reasonably sized with high ceilings, like the rest of the flat, and decorated in the same muggle property developer taste. The bed was not remarkable but Hermione could not bring herself to get out of it for a full ten minutes. She merely sat in it, snuggling into the pillows occasionally, and bouncing up and down with delight. It had been days since she slept in a bed... and months since she had had one to herself. She loved Ginny, Luna, Lavender, Parvati... Padma... Hannah... and everyone else she had been sharing a magically enlarged bed with for the previous month. But she didn't love them enough to actually want to share the duvet. She didn't think she'd ever love anybody that much. Even Ron.

Eventually she decided that she would have to get up. Throwing back the covers and swinging her legs off the bed, she discovered she was still wearing her clothes. Why had she not taken them off? She couldn't remember. She couldn't actually remember getting into bed at all. Last thing she recalled was dozing happily on the comfy sofa...

She cringed.

Malfoy must have put her to bed.

Hermione looked for the door. Opening the one nearest, she found herself staring into an empty closet. Scowling, she moved round to the next. This one opened into a small en suite bathroom. Not the escape route she had been looking for but a welcome discovery none the less!

She ran a bath. It had been too long couple of days of hasty scourgifys and sleeping in straw. A comfy bed and a hot bath were... bliss. There was no other word for it. Hermione remembered reading somewhere that the saints were given a glimpse of hell before they went to heaven.

'This must be why.' she thought idly, playing with the water.

There had not been any bubble bath to hand in the bathroom, nor was there any soap or shampoo. Apparently this bathroom was not used. She would have to wait a little longer to wash her hair. It was probably a good thing though, as it would only wash out Ginny's modified hair potion which had tamed it so nicely.

Ron may prefer her hair wild, but Hermione was fairly sure Malfoy wouldn't. He probably didn't even like it curly. Hermione sighed; the bath had gone cold.

Pulling out the plug, Hermione stood out of the bath and dried herself off with the towel that hung on the back of the door. Then she pulled her clothes back on. It occurred to her that she was going to have to find something else to wear, at least while she washed her things. Scourgify just didn't do the job properly. It had been sufficient, while she was being held prisoner, to keep them relatively sweet smelling. However, after almost a week of constant wear, they were beginning to go beyond what redemption the charm could offer. She sighed. Perhaps Malfoy will have something he could lend her. She doubted it though. He'd probably think it was weird.

It was weird. Hermione knew it was... but after living in such close quarters with the rest of the D.A girls... Hermione wasn't even sure if the knickers she was wearing were hers or Ginny's. Borrowing a robe from Draco for an hour while she washed her clothes was vanilla by comparison. She decided not to tell that to Malfoy though. It wouldn't exactly help and he probably just wanted her to go anyway.

'I should have gotten up earlier.' she decided. 'I should have made breakfast and tidied up... I need him to want me to stay a while longer. That would be so degrading though. Morning draco honey, how do you take your eggs? How pathetic! It probably would have worked though...'

Hermione left the bathroom and looked for her wand. It was resting on the bedside table, with... a ball of paper? Hermione walked over to take a closer look. It was Draco's origami creation from the night before. It was incredible. No wonder she had fallen asleep before he was done! The crazy wizard must have spent hours on it. Next to it was her paper dragon, which she had to admit looked a bit simple by comparison. Malfoy had also left her a note:

Granger,

Do you always sleep so much?

I've gone to work. Will be back later.

Don't go before I get back,

D.M

P.S. I won, by the way. We had a vote. You didn't disagree.

Hermione balled up the note in her hand. Did this mean he expected her to tidy up? Why had he not bloody well woken her up? It was so underhanded, putting her to bed instead of waking her up, just so he could get her to tidy up in the morning. Only a Slytherin, or a really devious Ravenclaw, would do it. Huffing to herself, Hermione opened the last door in the bedroom, which led through to the open plan kitchen-sitting room.

Malfoy had tidied up.

***

Hermione's escape was the talk of the Ministry. No one was sure if she had turned out the lights herself, been rescued by someone else who turned out the lights or if she had merely taken advantage of the situation.

The Guards had told Yaxley that they saw Malfoy leaving and that the lights went out and somebody stupefied them. Malfoy told Yaxley that he had been put under the Imperious Curse and had come to in Sheffield late that night.

"Why did you not report back for a debriefing?" roared Yaxley, throwing a ledger at Malfoy, who ducked it gracefully.

"With Respect Yaxley, I was not sure exactly what had happened. So I apparated straight home, not wanting to fall prey to such ne'er-do-wells again. Once I was there I fell asleep until this morning. When I awoke I came straight in for debriefing." he lied smoothly.

Yaxley threw an ink bottle at the wall and stalked out muttering,

"Get on with your work."

Draco did so. He completed the necessary paperwork for escaped prisoners. He couldn't believe he had gotten away with it. It was exhilarating to think of her, curled up in his spare room while they scratched their heads and wondered what had happened. She was something that he had saved. Part of him wanted to keep her forever; as two-fingers up to the Ministry, to Grompton and to the Dark Lord. But it was more than that; she was the last remaining proof that he had a soul. Nobody was going to ruin that. He had not been able to keep his mother safe from harm. He had not even been there for her when she died.

But Granger would be different.