A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts and favourites, it was so great getting back from holiday and seeing them all! I'm really sorry to everyone whose review I haven't replied to, i'm having some issues with my computer at the moment and it's not letting me click on certain things (This could just be me being completely stupid and un-technoligcal - the most likely explanation)! Anyway, sorry that the chapter is quite short, but I thought i'd post one just to show you that I haven't abandoned you all and then a longer one will be coming soon. Enjoy :)

Hermione POV

One minute I was pinned down on the couch, Draco's body on top of mine as his lips worked their way up my neck, the next he was shoving me away as hard as he could. I found myself being rolled to the side and a second later I landed on the floor with a crash, the impact knocking the breath out of me. Pain flew threw my body, the whole left hand side of my body feeling like it had been hit by a moving train.

"You have to get out! Now!" Draco was yelling at me with a desperate urgency.

I didn't understand what he was saying. All I could think about was the pain in my elbow. I tried to move my arm and a white hot pain shot up into my shoulder, making me wince. What had just happened? Surely the wall hadn't exploded had it? Into my mind came horrible flashbacks of the Battle of Hogwarts; stones crumbling down around me, the floor strewn with rubble as whole towers fell to pieces under the barrage of spells and fire.

"Move Hermione!"

Something about his tone of voice registered in my brain and without making a conscious decision I began to crawl, dazed and disorientated, round behind the couch. A cold wind was blowing in through the window, bringing in the smell of the grounds, damp and green. I shivered. Had he really been telling the truth about the break out? Were we about to come face to face with Lucius Malfoy? I was at the point of calling out to ask Draco what the hell was happening when a different voice spoke.

"I rather hoped I would find you here Draco."

There was a small pause, in which I imagined what I couldn't see happening on the other side of the couch. Draco's father standing amongst the shards of glass in the destroyed shell of the window, his black cloak billowing in the breeze and a sneer on his face.

When he answered Draco sounded supremely uninterested, bored even. "Here as in here at Hogwarts? Or here as in on this plain of being?"

Lucius laughed without amusement. "You never did know when to show respect Draco."

"You never gave me an opportunity to do so Father. None of your actions were worthy of respect."

I bit my tongue at his words, silently begging him not to goad his father any further. Draco did this in class too, pushing teachers until they snapped and either docked points or gave him the ugliest detention they could think of. He was never rowdy, or particularly disruptive in the way that Crabbe and Goyle were, but he always managed to be patronising and insulting even to the Professors he appeared to like.

"I wouldn't be so flippant if I were you" said Lucius coldly. "Or that mudblood girlfriend of yours is unlikely to live till dawn."

I felt a flare of anger at his words, followed by a flowering sensation of panic. Did this mean he knew about me and Draco? How was that even possible? He'd been locked up in Azkaban for the last year. He couldn't have come here with the express purpose of killing me. It was absurd. A cold dread began to run through my veins as I realised the danger of the situation. I didn't even have my wand.

Draco's next words were like a stab through the chest.

"Kill her for all I care. It was only a game."

I froze, my whole body feeling like it had just been doused in ice. He couldn't mean that. He couldn't. Even if he had never felt anything for me, he'd switched sides during the War. He wasn't an evil person. Allowing his father to kill me for his own sadistic pleasure was beyond him. Besides, he'd only moments ago told me to hide, right? My heart rate began to return to normal as logic kicked in. He'd pushed me away from him, gotten me behind the couch before his father could see me. He was protecting me. Making sure that his father thought there was only him in the room. Why would he do that? Unless…

"And what kind of game would that be?"

I could sense his shrug. "The usual. Got her into bed, made her believe I had feelings for her, then told her it had all been a joke."

"Why should I believe that?" Lucius demanded. "I have reliable informants who tell me that you were falling in love." The last three words were said with complete contempt.

"Well you don't see her here do you? She's probably still in the toilet where I left her, crying her eyes out."

Despite the fact that I was in real danger – I had no doubt that Malfoy senior would actually try to kill me if he discovered me – I was experiencing a moment of giddy happiness. Draco was lying to save me. Maybe he really had been telling the truth; breaking up with me to protect me from his insane fugitive father. I mean, now that his father was actually here, the story was a million times more believable. Our fight in the bathroom suddenly took on a whole new meaning. I remembered the way he closed his eyes before he yelled at me, like he was trying to psyche himself up. And Ginny had thought he was lying. She'd listened to me tell her about the whole of our relationship and couldn't believe that it had only been a game to him.

I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. I had to stop thinking about whether Draco loved me or not and start thinking about how to get us both out of here alive. Firstly, where on earth had we left our wands? I knew we'd both thrown them down when we'd started to make out, but where had they landed? I had a horrible feeling they were on the coffee table next to the window.

From what I could hear, Lucius seemed to be walking towards the fireplace. I hastily crawled round to the other side of the couch so he wouldn't see me.

"If that is the case" he drawled, "then you will have no objections to accompanying me."

I could now see the back of Draco's head. He was standing completely still facing his father, his back rigid.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"North."

"You don't trust me enough to tell me anything else?" I could hear the note of regret in Draco's voice, even if his father couldn't.

"You have never given me much reason in the past to think that you are loyal to me."

"That's because I'm not."

Without warning, Draco exploded into action. One minute he was stationary, the next he was running full stretch towards the open window, muscles rippling beneath his shirt. For one horrible moment I thought that he wasn't going to stop, just keep on going and leap out into the night. But then he was diving for our wands and dropping to the ground as Lucius shot a stunning curse over his head. He rolled to the side, putting an arm across his head to protect it from the glass that littered the floor. The curse hit a portrait on the opposite wall and it burst into flames, sending scraps of burning canvas floating down to the ground, the previous occupant of the picture moaning in agony. Then it made a final groaning noise and tipped forwards, slamming down onto the bookcase beneath it. The books caught alight, causing the fire to grow in heat and intensity. Lucius was backing away, not wanting to get burnt by the ash that was raining down. Amid the mayhem, I saw Draco slip his own wand into his jeans and pull his t-shirt down over it, hiding it from view. What on earth was he playing at? He needed it to defend himself! Then I realised what he was doing. His father couldn't see him with two wands. He'd know somebody else had been in the room with him.

"Get up boy" Lucius snarled. He remained on the other side of the room, away from the flames and the destruction.

Draco got unsteadily to his feet. His face was covered in dust from rolling on the floor and he had a bloody cut down one cheek. His hair shone gold in the firelight.

He took a step forward. "Father, I –"

Then his foot caught on an upturned corner of the rug and he tripped. He fell to the floor once again, sending the wand he was holding rolling behind the couch and into my waiting hands. The whole thing had seemed perfectly natural. Even I, who had never seen Draco do anything as undignified as to trip over in seven years at Hogwarts, would have believed it was an accident if it wasn't for the quick look he shot in my direction. He was leaving himself unarmed deliberately so he could give me a weapon.

Lucius was laughing, for real this time. He didn't suspect a thing. "Clumsy child. You didn't actually think you could get away from me did you?"

Draco raised his head and his expression became resigned. "No father."

"Get to your feet."

Draco got, keeping his eyes downcast. This was part of the act. Lucius needed to think he had won. He needed to let his guard down. I gripped my wand in my hand and began to inch round to the other side of the couch. I was determined not to let Draco down after he had made himself so vulnerable in order to make me safe.

"Even when you abandoned me during the War, you didn't think you'd truly escaped from me, did you?" Lucius asked condescendingly. "I have connections that even the Dark Lord was unaware of. His downfall was a setback, yes. But I will regain my former power."

"How?" Draco looked up then quickly down again, as if he were afraid to meet his father's eye. Lucius smirked.

"I have been in contact with the giants in the north. They are planning a rebellion. And I shall be the one who leads them to victory against the Ministry."

"But how did you escape from Azkaban?" Draco's voice had taken on a tinge of admiration. He was acting well, making his father believe he was impressed by his actions. The only sign that revealed his true feelings, that gave him away, was the way his hands were balled into fists at his sides.

"Many of the dementors are still on our side" said Lucius casually. "They are clever enough to see past the Dark Lord's demise and to the possibility of a new insurrection."

"I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't. Not when you were consorting with your precious Dumbledore. Where is he by the way?"

Draco shrugged. "Gone to the Ministry I think."

Lucius took a step towards the window. "Well then, we must be gone by the time he gets back."

I manoeuvred myself onto the balls of my feet so I would be ready to jump up and stun Lucius the second his back was turned.

"Why?" asked Draco, "why come back for me?"

I knew that, despite everything, he really did want to know. He wanted his father to tell him that he loved him, even though deep down he hated him for everything he'd done.

Lucius tipped his head to one side, considering. He spoke slowly. "Firstly, to teach you a lesson."

"A… lesson?" Draco looked up into his father's face and paled at the twisted grin he saw there. "Father, don't –"

"Crucio!"

I gasped in shock as Draco's body began to convulse, his limbs jerking forward and backward. After a few seconds he collapsed to the floor, still shuddering in pain. Lucius kept his wand trained on his son, smiling at the way Draco's face was contorting in agony. I felt hatred rise like bile in my throat, eclipsing my fear. He was such a demented bastard. How could he stand there and enjoy torturing his son? I couldn't bear to see Draco twitching like that, like his body was on fire. I'd been hit with the Cruciatus curse only twice in my life, both at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange. The pain had been like nothing else on earth, so extreme, so intense, that you wanted to die rather than experience it for any second longer. Dumbledore had once told me that the feeling was different depending on who performed the curse. With Bellatrix, my mind had become unhinged, filled with disturbing images and shadows that threatened to consume every good thought I'd ever had. I didn't want to think about what Lucius would be doing to Draco. Because they had a connection anyway, by blood, the feelings would be automatically more concentrated. And I knew that Draco had had this curse used on him numerous times as a child, which meant that Lucius had probably pinpointed exactly where it was and what it was in his mind that made Draco feel the most pain. I'd had enough. I couldn't just sit by and watch Draco being half killed by his father.

Jumping to my feet, I pointed my wand at Lucius and screamed "stupefy!"

With a deft flick of his wrist he blocked the spell. Cursing, I dived to the side, trying to find cover again. Lucius spun round to face me, recognition and then disgust crossing his features.

"It barely surprises me that you lied Draco" he sneered, leaving his son crumpled on the floor, struggling for breath as he advanced on me instead. "And now you get to watch me murder your mudblood."

"You wish" I snarled. As Lucius flicked his wand at me and said "crucio" I yelled "expelliarmus". Our curses met in mid-air, bouncing off each other and sending fireworks of colour ricocheting around the room. I dropped to the floor and crawled quickly behind the couch again, hoping that he might be hit by one of the deflections. Reaching the other end, I peered round to see that instead of chasing me, Lucius had strode over to Draco and was pulling him up by his collar.

"I'd put down your wand if I were you" he said coldly.

"Why the hell would I do that?" I said, watching nervously as he dragged Draco into a standing position.

"Because if you don't, I kill him".

With a jolt of horror I realised that Lucius was pressing the blade of a small bone handled knife against his son's throat. Draco's eyes were still glazed over with pain, but they found mine and in that instant I knew that Lucius knew exactly what he was doing. Of course I was going to drop my wand. When the blade pressed in and drew blood, a small scarlet bead trickling down Draco's collar bone and beneath his shirt, I started forward.

"Stop!" I said, hurriedly placing my wand on the floor. "Please stop!"

Lucius smirked. "I thought you'd feel that way."

Moving forward, with Draco in front of him like a protective shield, he kicked my wand away into the corner of the room.

"Now" he said, releasing Draco and pushing him in my direction. "What am I going to do with you both?"

Draco staggered into me and I brought my arms up around him in order to stop him from collapsing. He was weak from the cruciatus curse, his body trembling from the exertion of movement.

"You wouldn't have actually killed him?" I whispered, horrified by the depths the man in front of me would sink to.

"I didn't need to" Lucius replied. "You are weak. You let your emotions rule you."

"Better that than have no emotions at all!" I told him.

"You won't think that when you're dead."

Lucius raised his wand. His face was a study in light and shadows, the flickering of the flames from the bookcase reflecting in his eyes. He looked completely insane, wild from the year he'd spent in Azkaban. It reminded me of the way Voldemort had looked, drunk with the conviction that he couldn't be killed. I pressed my face into Draco's shoulder, not wanting to look at Lucius as he killed me. My body felt like it had stopped working; the blood running sluggishly threw my veins. I was beyond scared, in that strange state of being that you only get during a battle, where time seems to slow and each second feels immeasurably precious.

"Avada –"

"Incarcerous!"

I saw a flash of light through my closed eyelids and then heard a heavy thud – the sound of a body dropping to the floor. Looking up, I saw Lucius tied up with ropes on the floor, seemingly unconscious. Draco had his wand out, pointed at him.

"Oh Draco!" I cried, throwing my arms around him. Dumbledore always said that it took great courage to stand up to your enemies, but even greater courage to stand up to your friends. I knew that for Draco, standing up to his father was even harder than both.

"I – need to sit down" he groaned, gently unwrapping my arms from around his neck and moving over to the couch. He sank down on to it, eyes closed. "Check if he's out cold will you?"

I was experiencing a horrible rush of adrenaline as all feeling returned; fear followed by dread followed by relief and happiness. Draco had saved me. Neither of us were dead. His father was tied up and everything he'd said to me earlier had been true. He did still love me. I prodded Lucius with my toe and when he didn't stir I bent down and picked up his wand.

"He's out for the count" I said.

"So" said Draco, opening his eyes and giving me the ghost of a grin. "Do you believe me now?"

"Yes" I said, walking over and sitting down next to him on the couch. It felt so good to say that out loud and know that it was true. Every awful word he'd said to me had been to save me rather than to hurt me. It hadn't all been a game to him, getting me in to bed in order to crush my heart; he genuinely did love me back. He loved me enough to choose me over his family. Draco reached over and took my hand.

"So what do we do now?" I asked.

He tipped his head back and sighed. "Eventually we have to go and get McGonagall. Eventually my father will be taken back to Azkaban. Eventually we have to inform Dumbledore about the Giants."

"And right now?"

"Right now we just be" he said.

I leant my head against his shoulder and closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his body next to mine.

Being seemed like a really good plan.

So, the general concensus was funny rather than angsty, so it will be heading back that way in the next few chapters. You know I love those reviews ;)

Also, how good was Deathly Hallows Part 2! I cry more with each time of watching x