Despite herself, Hermione laughed a little.

"Is something funny Gryffindor?" asked Draco, as he rolled over slightly, pressing his wasted body into her more than was entirely proper.

"You." murmured Hermione, pushing him away and sitting up. Draco tried to pull her back down but she was too quick for him and was out of bed and sitting on the chaise longue on the other side of the room before he quite understood what she was doing. With a flick of his wand, Draco lit the lamp. He squinted at her in annoyance. She looked rumpled and bed headed. It was all he could do not to bound over and drag her back into the warmth of his bed.

"Why can't you just do as you're told?" he asked her.

Hermione ignored him. "I want to go tomorrow." she told him.

"What? Why? We don't have a proper plan; we aren't exactly going to be well rested and we both know it's going to be bloody awful for both of us at your head-quarters-"

"Draco, I've been in those cells, they are far worse than having to live with Ronald."

"I don't want to live with any of them!"

"It wont be for long! Most of them will be gone as soon as we have an idea where you-know-who is. We are going tomorrow Draco."

"What about your muggle friend? Don't you think it would be a touch unkind to disappear just as she thinks she's got herself a friend at last."

"I'm sure she has plenty of friends Draco, she's hardly the sort of woman to-"

"I saw inside her head Hermione, when I was modifying her memory. She's fucking lonely."

"Oh... oh I didn't realise." Hermione felt awful. Why was everything so complicated? No matter what she did she was bound to hurt somebody. Leave tomorrow and Ethel would be alone. Leave later and the prisoners held in the Ministry would suffer, perhaps not even be there any longer. And Draco was going to find out how everybody he thought cared about him had lied, so she could hardly come back to see Ethel, without the risk of seeing him too. Of course, she'd still come- she was too proud to let his displeasure prevent her.

"Draco... Know matter what we do, somebody is going to get hurt. We have to prioritise. The longer we're here; the longer people suffer at the hands of the Deatheaters. The longer we stay; the longer the prisoners suffer in those cells. I've decided. We leave in the morning."

Draco looked at her and thought for a moment. If they left... he'd never get her back. He got out of bed and went to sit next to her. "If a train was speeding towards-"

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Just shut up and listen! If a train was speeding towards a group of children- say ten of them- playing of the train lines. And you could redirect it, just by pulling a lever, to a line that only one child was playing on. Would you do it?"

"...Yes." Hermione wasn't really listening. Draco was not wearing anything on his top half. And she had noticed something she had never seen before. For all Harry's suspicions in their sixth year at Hogworts... she had never really believed it. But there it was, contrasting sharply with the paleness of his skin. The mark. Draco was still talking.

"Wouldn't you then be the one to have murdered the one child? If you had done nothing then the ten children's' deaths would have had nothing to do with you. You see?"

"Malfoy-" Hermione said, in an unsure voice, but he kept on.

"And why should that one child, who was playing on the safe track, have to die for the stupidity of the ten? Why should your muggle friend have to suffer because ten stupid idiots managed to get themselves caught! She shouldn't. And why should I have to live with all your bloody friends when-"

"BECAUSE HALF OF IT IS YOUR BLOODY FAULT!" screamed Hermione. "YOU let the deatheaters in; YOU got Dumbledore killed; YOU Draco, none of them. You're the fucking train driver!"

Draco stared at her but she was not looking at him. Her gaze was directed at the tattoo on his arm. He snapped his hand to it, hiding it from view. "Hermione I-"

"We are going in the morning Malfoy. I don't want to discuss it. I don't trust myself around you. Goodnight!"

Hermione slammed the door behind her and Draco, cold and more alone than he had been in weeks, sat in the half light of the lamp and stared at the ugly mark on his skin.

***

When they reached the Ministry the next morning, the atmosphere between the two had not improved. Draco awoke on the chaise lounge, having shunned the warmth of the empty bed. Stretching out his long, stiff limbs, he approached the kitchen where Hermione was clattering with pots and pans; readying breakfast- delicious smelling porridge.

"What are you doing?" he asked her sleepily, causing her to jump and hit her bushy head on the shelf of the cupboard she was rooting through.

"Ow!" she hissed. "Bugger. Why must you sneak up on people?"

"I was not sneaking. Just because I don't announce my presence with a fanfare of clattering doesn't mean I sneak." Draco was in as bad a temper as he was any morning.

"You are a sneak." said Hermione under her breath, before adding a little louder, "There's coffee in the pot."

"Urgh. I hate coffee. Where's the tea?"

"No tea. We need the caffeine. I don't know about you but I didn't sleep much last night." she said, sitting down at the the table and and pouring herself a teacup full of the strong smelling coffee. Draco tried to not pay attention to how delicately she held the cup.

"Hermione... this is insane. We are going in cold. We have no real plan. All we have is a couple of access permission forms and a single guard that would admit the pair of us in a fire."

"I don't care. I don't want to leave them." said Hermione stubbornly. "And I don't want to stay here any longer than is necessary."

She did not look at him properly. She spoke mostly to the sugar bowl or to the ceiling. Although- once or twice- Draco saw her eyes dart towards his arm. His heart sank; he had hoped- against hope- that he had been wrong the night before. But it was beyond doubt now. He clamped a hand over his sleeve, as though she could see through the threadbare material of his ministry robes.

"Look-" he said abruptly, "look... I... the mark... I couldn't-"

"I don't need to hear it Draco." interrupted Hermione in a strangled voice. "Eat your breakfast. I'm going to get my shoes on."

Draco stared miserably into his coffee.

***

Hermione stood behind Draco as they apparated to the Ministry. She had cast a bedazzling Hex upon herself, as she had for Borgin and Burkes, that would make her appear invisible. Only if somebody looked carefully would they see her faint outline, or her watery shadow. She walked too near to him for her own comfort, but needed to stay close, lest she be bump into by a passer by.

Draco walked into the phone-box unhindered, pressing his back to the side casually, in order to leave enough room for the invisible form of Hermione to slip in next to him.

"OW!" gasped Hermione.

"What? Hermione what is it!"

"Nothing just an- OW!"

"Hermione? What's the matter? Tell me!"

"I can't get in! There's... it's like a wall. It's almost as though it's sharp... I- I think it's some sort of ward keeping me out!"

Draco tried to look nonchalant while hissing at thin air. "Well I can't do this without you."

"Draco you have to."

"No, you were the one who wanted to come in without a plan, you're the one who rushes in and makes it up as she goes along. I want to consider the angles. Go home."

"No!"

"Yes." Draco hit the side of the door. "Go home now. I'll find out what wards they have."

"Draco I can't ju-"

"Look! I'll come home at lunch, ok? I'll tell you what I've found out then. We can always come back then, it doesn't have to be a dawn raid." Hermione said nothing. Draco tilted his head to the side and purred, "Are you biting your lip?"

"What?"

"You always bite your bottom lip when you're thinking." That ought to make her go home.

Hermione was glad he could not see the alarmed look that, no doubt, flashed across her face. "Oh." she said simply. "Do you promise to come home later?"

"I love it when you call my flat 'home'."

Hermione said nothing. She decided that, when Draco said things like that, it was better to ignore him.

"I'll see you for lunch." he added. "I promise."

She did not reply but he heard the crack of her disapparating. This was shortly followed by another crack.

"You forgot to give me the key." she told him tonelessly.

This he handed to her, holding out his hand- palm up- as though feeling for the rain that the clouds above were promising. He heard another crack as she disapparated again.

***

Hermione went home, to stare at the walls of the flat and light one cigarette from the other all morning. She almost screamed when she discovered that Draco had no proper reference books. There was nothing other than his book about Merlic, a couple of issues of "The Potions Press" which did not look like they had even been read, and a volume entitled "Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy" which was more thoroughly thumbed than his childhood story of adventure. Hermione, against her better judgement, leafed through it. It was not that bad... it was more like reading Lamarcks theory of evolution; dated and misinformed. She tried not to feel offended by some of the things it said about muggleborns. Draco had even underlined certain passages and annotated them in places. Was this what he thought of her? Hermione could not bear the thought of him thinking ill of her. For all his attentions, she could not help but feel that perhaps they were in spite of his opinions. She tried to focus her mind on the dark mark branded into his skin; tried to remind herself that he was a Deatheater. Draco the Deatheater. It did not offer as much reassurance as she had thought it might. It nigh on broke her heart to think of it. The alien ink on his pearly skin was... it didn't belong.

She read another note he had written in the margin, the ink of this one looked fresher than the rest. It read:

That doesn't make sense.

She smiled a little.

***

Meanwhile Draco was trying to find out why the wards were keeping Hermione out. He charmed the mask into the face of an unremarkable wizard and walked to the canteen. Armed with a mid-morning cup of tea, he sat at a table with a pair of gossipy looking witches from Minister of Magic's support staff.

"Good morning." he said in a sheepish voice. "Ma- May I sit here?"

"Oh, yes of course," said one of the witches as she moved her handbag off the seat next to her, "I've not seen you before."

"It's my first day." said Draco, with what he hoped was a shy smile.

"Oh how nice." said the other witch. "Look Ethel, he's barely out of Hogworts! What's you name poppet?"

"Daniel."

"How are you getting on Daniel?" asked Ethel, "I remember my first day, gosh. That was decades ago. I was so frightened and then one of those memo's hit me in the eye." the witch laughed at the memory. 'Daniel' smiled nervously.

"Don't worry about that though dear, it's never happened before or since. I was something of a special case. Ha ha ha."

"Have you been shown around properly?" asked the other witch. "It's such a confusing place..."

"Yes, I was given a tour of my department... but..."

"What is it dear?"

"I heard about that mudblood getting out... I'm a little afraid they might get in again." 'Daniel' confessed.

"Ah." said Ethel, sagely. "Well, don't go telling everybody... or anybody for that matter. But they've put new wards up."

"Really? What do they do?"

"They're Name Wards. They stop known undesirables from getting in, the only way they can get in is if they are captured."

"Oh... how does a Name ward work though?"

"They stop whole families from getting in. Not a single Potter or Weasley could get in here." the witch, so kindly to 'Daniel', smiled evilly. "So don't worry dear. You are quite safe."

Draco looked up at the clock with alarm. "Oh gosh!" he yelped, "I'm going to be late. It was lovely to meet you both. Bye!"

And he dashed out of the canteen and into the Wizards toilets. He pulled off the mask and shrunk it down into his pocket, having removed he charms that shaped it. It was barely ten o'clock. He would not be able to go home for at least another two hours. But this, he supposed, gave him a chance to come up with something fiendishly clever to impress Hermione with.

Or at least something fiendish.

***

"Hermione? I'm home."

Hermione came in from the balcony. She was smiling at him. She had not smiled at him properly since Monday. "First thing you said to me?" she asked.

Draco scowled. "Hey Longbottom, I've found your toad. Can we please have a different question?"

"Ask me mine."

Draco growled at her and sat down on the sofa. "What are you making, other than some ridiculous point about how I was not exactly pleasant to you at school?"

Hermione laughed and sat on the arm of his seat. "There's cheese-on-toast-with-tomatoes-underneath under the grill. They should be ready in half a minute."

"Cheese on t- what?"

"Ah... wait until you try it." She said, ruffling his hair in a sisterly sort of way, and returning to the kitchen. "Now then. Tell me what the hell happened earlier." she called.

"It's a Name ward." Draco followed her to the kitchen, where he got a pair of plates out of the cupboard. "You cannot get it because you're a Granger."

"Ow!" Hermione burnt her hand on the grill in surprise. "But that's insane!"

"Here, let me." said Draco, moving her out of the way to remove their lunch from the oven. "It's not that insane."

"Name wards haven't been used in years... they're just for feuding families! What good could they do the Ministry? What if another Granger needs to get in?"

"Wizarding families are... well the pureblood ones... they-"

"Basically they don't want anybody with a drop of muggle blood at all."

Draco nodded gravely. "In short."

"Well what are we going to do? I can't get passed a Name ward! You're just going to have to go alone-"

"Hermione, what if there was a way for you to get passed the wards?"

"There isn't any I've heard of." she laughed. "Unless I marry someone who is allowed through!"

Draco smiled at her.

"Draco? No! What hell is wrong with you!"

"Come on Hermione, we could just as easily divorce."

"I am not becoming a divorcee before I and twenty-two and I am not becoming a Malfoy before hell freezes over!"

Draco's eyes flashed angrily. "What's wrong with being a Malfoy!"

"Nothing... It's just, Draco... marriage is pretty bloody drastic! I'm sure you could manage to get them out on your own. I could be waiting outside with a port-key to take us all back to head-quarters..." The thought appalled her. How could she let Draco have all the fun? No, not fun. That's not what she meant... what she really meant was- err - 'do all the work'.

"Is that really what you want?" he asked her, trying to keep any sly undertones out of his voice and expression.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you want to just wait on the sidelines while I do all the leg-work?"

Her eyes narrowed to furious slits.

"I'm just saying," he carried on, "that I would have expected you would want to be in on the action. I thought you would want to help."

"There's helping... and then there's getting married." she snapped. "Draco, no. I am not- this is ridiculous."

"Why?"

"I am not going to marry you just so I can get onto the Ministry!"

"Look," his voice was cross and drawling, "I'm hardly getting down on bended knee here. I'm just saying, this is a legal way for you to take a different name. We could get an annulment as soon as this is all over. Nobody would even have to know."

"Draco I-"

"And-" he carried on, "It's not as if I'm asking you to spend your life with me and have my children! I'm just offering the loan of my name and the protection it affords. Merlin, I thought you'd be pleased."

That was definitely not all he was offering.

"Eat your lunch." she told him.

"Will you at least consider it?"

"...Yes. I will consider it." said Hermione carefully. Perhaps he was right. She couldn't wait outside while he did the rescuing. He was much cleverer and more self-reliant than Harry or Ron; he would no doubt do just as a good a job without her. But... waiting outside, cringing before the Ministry; beaten by it's wards? She couldn't do it.

Draco beamed but quickly forced the delighted smile from his face; it wouldn't do for her to see how truly happy it made him. Blankly, he bit into his rapidly cooling lunch. She was right- cheese-on-toast-with-tomatoes-underneath was delicious. The sweet tomatoes, the melted cheese and the crispy toast all mingled together like-

"Draco?" Hermione interrupted his thoughts.

"Yes?"

"You promise you would agree to annul it?"

"...Yes." No no no no no no. "Yes of course. Do you think I'd want to be married to you all my life?" he scoffed.

"Maybe."

"Bit full of yourself aren't you Gryffindor?"

"You've not exactly given me reason to believe you. After the way you've been behaving... the things you've said..."

Draco cursed silently. Why had he made no secret of his feelings for her? That was not the Slytherin way. He should have kept quiet.

"Draco... I also need you to promise you wont tell anybody back at Shell Cottage."

"What's Shell Cottage?"

Hermione had not yet told him the name. She had always been careful to refer to it only as 'Headquarters.' even if the term was laughable. The cramped in cottage, full of young Witches and Wizards constantly trying to cop off with each other behind the house or in the garden, was a far cry from the organised unit 'Headquarters' implied it was. Why had she not told him anything about it?

"Headquarters. Although... it barely warrants the name. It's more like... well it's terribly over-crowded and everyone is always playing tricks on each other and snogging in the garden."

Draco laughed a little, "That sounds like the Slytherin common room!" his face became suddenly serious. "Why did you not tell me before?"

"I don't know. I suppose I wasn't sure I could trust you."

"What makes you think you can now?"

"Well... we are about to get married, even if it is a sham." She smiled at him impishly. He wouldn't have thought she could look so mischievous. It made him grin too. All the more so, because she had accepted his offer.

"We are?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and looking particularly haughty.

"...Yes."

He smirked and asked, "You want to marry me?"

"I suppose so."

"You're meant to say 'I do.'" huffed Draco.

She narrowed her eyes and fixed him with a jokingly cross glare. "I do."

"Good." he said. "Of course you do. You're only human."

Hermione laughed and threw the edge of a crust at him. "Twit." she giggled.