Hermione paced her cell impatiently and bit her nails to the nub. Her imposter had gone to Draco a little over an hour ago and there was still no word on how things turned out. Good news, bad news, she wanted to hear it whatever it was. Not knowing was slowly driving her mad and if she didn't find out anything soon, she'd run out of nail to bite and start in on her fingers.

"Open that door! NOW!"

Hermione turned to the shouts hurtling towards her door. The door was wrenched open and Christian flung himself inside with Harry and Ron at his heels looking for fearful for Hermione's safety.

"What the hell did you do?!" Christian shouted at her. Hermione found his hands gripping her shoulders tightly and shaking her roughly. "Out with it! How did he know?!"

"Christian get off of her!" Harry yelled. He and Ron grabbed Christian by the arms and pulled him off of Hermione. She was in shock at his display and rubbed her shoulders, now sore from how hard he was holding her.

"What's the matter with you?!" Hermione stared at Christian who yanked himself out of Harry and Ron's grip. He held onto clumps of his hair and nearly yanked them out. With a hard look at Hermione he gritted his teeth and asked her again.

"What did you do?"

Hermione stared at him, glanced at Harry and Ron, and shrugged her shoulders. "Depends on what you're talking about."

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Christian snapped. "Malfoy… What the hell did you do to tip him off so that he could get away?"

Hermione couldn't stop herself from smiling. It was probably driving a knife and several other sharp objects through Christian's heart, but she didn't care. All she could feel at that moment was pure joy. "He got away?"

"'He got away?'" Christian mimicked. He snarled and pounded his hand against the jagged cell wall. "Yes, he got away! And it was you who warned him."

"How could she?" Ron reasoned with him. "She didn't go anywhere. She didn't Owl anyone-"

"So what..? Hermione's smart. She got a message to him somehow, I know she did."

"Even if she did, you could never prove it." Harry argued, and Christian turned on him fast. He was inches from his face and staring him down. Harry, however, stared him back down just as hard.

"Maybe it was you, Potter." Christian spat. He glanced at Ron and huffed. "Or maybe you, Weasley… The both of you escorted her from Azkaban. Maybe she told you what to do and you did it. Everyone at the Ministry knows what you'd do for her."

"Stop it!" Hermione demanded. All three men turned in her direction and she clenched her fists. "I did nothing and neither did they. Malfoy got out because he's a smart man. And you know what? I'm glad that he did."

Christian clenched his jaws and sucked his teeth. "No matter... I have you and that's a start. Get yourself a lawyer."

Harry and Ron told Hermione that trials would start in about a month's time. They brought to her a list of lawyers for her to choose from, but she denied them all. She wanted no lawyer, and no matter how hard-pressed her friends were, they couldn't get her to change her mind.

After the long day she had Hermione was lying face-up on her cot. She had stopped complaining about how awful it was by now. Now she was just thinking and reflecting about all that had happened in just a short space of time. It was tiring, truly, and saddening as well, but knowing that Draco was safe brought some sort of comfort to her. It also made her laugh as well, watching the other Aurors, especially Christian, fumble about trying to figure out how Draco had known about Amelia, and how he was able to suddenly take off and disappear without a trace once again.

"Granger,"

Hermione craned her neck and then swung her legs off of the cot to the voice.

"You got a visitor." The guard said, and Hermione nodded. She stood and placed her hands one on top of the other. With his wand, the guard allowed binds to wrap around her wrists, rather loosely she might add, and then smiled, seeing that the guard was smiling too.

"Thanks Bernard," She whispered and Bernard gave a curt nod as he led her out of her cell. They took a long walk to where the visiting rooms were and on the way there Hermione couldn't help but feel happy that she wasn't shivering violently.

Unlike in Azkaban, there were no Dementors. No, being a prisoner hadn't changed her views of them. She had never liked Dementors in the first place. The Hogwarts days were filled with being tormented by them, so why would she like them or even think of them as an acceptable form of punishment?

The binds were taken off of Hermione's hands once inside the visitor's room and she took a seat as Bernard left her alone. A minute or so later the door to the room opened, and instead of seeing Harry or Ron like she thought she would, she was seeing a man she had never seen before. He was tall, had black hair, light blue eyes and had dimples in his cheeks. He closed the door after him and smiled broadly as he placed a hand at the rim of his pockets.

"My name's Samuel Delaney." He greeted. "I'm your lawyer."

Hermione huffed and immediately crossed her arms. "I told the Ministry that I didn't want a lawyer."

"I know, and I pressed that you should."

Samuel sat down on the seat directly across from her and pulled a small parcel out of his pocket. He opened it for her to see and picked up one of the only two biscuits in his hand and took a bite out of it.

"Have the other."

"Some lawyer you are." Hermione scoffed. "Ministry protocol says that I can't take, nor can you give, anything from persons not authorized to work within this building."

Samuel laughed as he took another bite and then smiled. "An Azkaban prisoner and still quoting Ministry protocols..? If it makes you feel any better, Aurors Potter and Weasley allowed me to do this. I'm quite sure that the food you've been getting tastes like nothing."

Hermione snapped her eyes to his in a second. The food here tastes like nothing… She repeated in her mind and thought back to where she had heard those words before and from whom. She looked up at Samuel once again and found him nodding to the other sole biscuit left. She took it then, and took a large bite out of it. It wasn't particularly delicious, but after a second or so she knew that the point of the biscuit wasn't for taste. The world around her, or in particular the sounds around her, became dull. She couldn't hear the air circulating in the vents, nor her foot tapping, nor the sound of Samuel's chair as he edged forward some. She suddenly began to smile.

"On second thought, maybe I do need you."

More like you want me… Hermione heard Samuel's voice in her mind and all she wanted to do was smile some more, to throw her arms around him, and be glad that he was okay. But of course she knew better and she restrained herself, as well as turning her already broad smile into a complacent one.

"Your case won't be easy, Miss Granger." Are you glad that you took the biscuit now?

"I know. Nor do I expect it to be." Yes, very. I can't believe you're here. You're insane.

"I'll be coming to see you once a week to gather information for your case. So I've been told there's to be a preliminary hearing in three weeks. That's three sessions." You act as though you didn't already know. He laughed in his mind and continued. Engraving our signal on your arm before handing over a bit of your hair was impressive.

"The odds are that I'll go to Azkaban for at the very least ten years for harboring a fugitive. How exactly do you expect to get around that?" The fact that we're doing this little mind game and that you have another alias is what's impressive.

"With your history with Aurors Potter and Weasley and all that you've done we might be able to shave off some amount of time." The more crooked you are, the more aliases you have.

"Yes, I guess so. It happens all the time in court. Playing on the hearts of the crowd in order to get sympathy," In that case, how many aliases do you have?

"So, with that said, and as I don't know you personally, I want to get a read on you now and some truths so we don't waste any time with the sessions we're going to have." One more after this… Truth be told I didn't think that I'd run through them so quickly.

"That means a round of questions then. Go for it." And you'd still be Darius Vaughn if it wasn't for bloody Christian. Or me, for that matter…

"Alright, did you or did you not let Draco Malfoy escape?" Oh no, not this again.

"Yes, I let him escape." Yes, this again. And with you here you'll probably get caught again and move on to alias number three.

"Why did you let him go?" Don't ever think that any of this is your fault. I'm the one who befriended Christian when I knew he was an Auror. I'm not leaving you here, Granger.

"Because I had to… It seemed right at the time." You're not a real lawyer for bloody sake. Even if you were, there's no chance for me to get off. You're a fugitive. I harbored you. I told a series of lies. It's as simple and clear as that.

"Does it still seem right?" You're forgetting what I taught you… What did they arrest you for?

"Yes, it does." Failure to comply during an investigation and withholding evidence, lying to an investigator, and harboring a fugitive…

Damn. Christian charged all of that while arresting you?

Yes. Still have hope for those loopholes?

Draco gave no answer. He sat still for a moment before allowing a smile to come to his lips and nodding. Yes, I do. Tell me something; have they done a formal interrogation with you yet?

No, not yet. More than likely that'll take place sometime this afternoon.

Then how did they find out, indefinitely, that you harbored me?

I let it slip in my cell while I was talking to Harry and Ron. Why? What does that have to do with anything?

Because it wasn't during an interrogation… It's inadmissible evidence and can't be used. And now I ask that you do one thing, Granger. When you do get brought in for questioning, never admit that you knew who I really was. If you follow that one rule, all they can get you for is not complying and lying to an investigator, which I can peg as you firmly believing that Christian was wrong and not going along with his stupid theory.

Draco sat back in chair, and Hermione did the same, smiling wholeheartedly on the inside and feeling ten times better than she had ever felt in her life. There was a knock on the visitor's door, signaling that time was up. Neither wanted to leave the other, but it wasn't like they could stay in that room forever.

Hermione sighed, and then gave a soft nod of approval and satisfaction. "Well then, thank you Mr. Delaney. I'm glad that you'll be representing me."

"Same on this end, Miss Granger." Draco said as he stood. The door to the visitor's room opened and he made his way towards it. But before leaving, he gave one last look at Hermione, smiled, and sent her one last thought.

And you said I wasn't a lawyer.

Author's note: Draco to the rescue! That's all I can say. Don't you just love him? Also, I'm sure Christian throwing a fit made you pretty happy :)

Thanks for reading everyone!

-WP