AN: I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this story and I want to offer my sincerest apologies for that fact. I've been very sick off and on over the last few weeks and tied in with that and trying to work when I can (basically, when i've been feeling well enough too) and then also trying to back into a state of wellness my writing has fallen to the backburner. I can't promise regular updates again just yet, but hopefully I won't let it go this long again without an update. Let me know how you all are, how you liked the story, but most of all - enjoy! If you want to see daily updates of my life (why not?:P) then my instagram name is sammiejane and i have twitter where my username is thatsammiejane

LOVE YOU GUYS! Thank you so much for your ongoing support! You really are the best readers ever 3


"Hermione I'm so happy you decided to throw a ball! Don't you worry I'll help you with everything" the youngest Wesley chattered about, going into explicit detail over what the needed to order, who they should book to play music, what the house elves should cook for their meals, and most importantly what they should wear.

Hermione grasped every third word or so, because internally she was far far away from her conversation with Ginny. She was deep in her mind, recounting her spectacular night with Draco, and the fact that he called her Hermione.

Of course, there was the whole premonition dream thing that she was still skeptical about, however if the result was him finally feeling comfortable calling her by her first name then that was fine by her. And she didn't expect him to go around calling her that all the time now, no, she was sure the was he calls her Granger would stick around for awhile.

Which she was also find about, because there was something in the way he said it that got her all riled up. She supposed it was because of the old saying that there is a fine line between love and hate, and passion, because when he says her last name in that throaty growl her desire for him triples.

"Hermione, for Merlins sake, did you hear a word I said?"

"Yes, of course Ginny, I agree."

"So you do want to cover my brother in Ox Blood and lick it off then?" Ginny said with an equally evil and innocent smile that Ginny had perfected.

"What, no." Exclaimed Hermione, realising she hadn't been saying attention for a while.

"Which brother?" A dreamy voice came from the corner, as Luna sat down at their table.

"Does it matter?" Ginny asked "they're all equally repulsive."

"According to my dad Ox blood changes taste and texture according to what it is mixed with or put on."

"Why would anyone actually want to consume it?" Ginny asked

"Well apparently it has a lot of health benefits, according to-"

"Anyway," Hermione interjected.

"Oh yes, Hermione, why were you grinning like an idiot when you weren't paying attention to my fabulous ideas?"

"Oh, that was nothing." Hermione said, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment

"That doesn't look like nothing." Ginny said.

"Did you get some last night Hermione?" Luna asked, and Ginny and Hermione looked at their friend shocked, not having heard her say anything quite like that before.

"Um, Er," Hermione stumbled on her words, trying to find a viable excuse.

"You did!" Ginny squeeled.

"I did not!" Defended Hermione, however even she could tell that she wasn't convincing anyone.

"How was it?" Luna asked

"Amazing," said Hermione, giving in and deciding to gossip like a girl for once. "It was in the bath in our quarters, I've showed it to you before Ginny, the big one. It was fantastic. And, well," She said, debating over whether or not she should confide further in her friends.

"Well?" Ginny said.

"You both promise not to say anything?" Hermione said, having never really had anything of the sort to share with her friends before, therefore never really needing to have them swear to secrecy.

"Of course, Hermione, we'd never tell anyone anything you told is in privacy." Luna said.

"Okay. You know how Draco tends to only ever call me Granger. Wait, what am I saying, he had only ever called me Granger. Well, last night he called me Hermione."

Her friends were speechless, obviously understanding what a big deal this moment was for their relationship. Breaking out of calling her Granger, even for a moment, showed that he was letting her in. Letting her in to see parts of him that he would bare with no one else. She suddenly felt a rush of guilt for sharing her news with her friends. He was letting her in, only her, and here she was sharing bits of information with other people.

"I probably shouldn't have told you two. It's just, personal, I guess. I'm sure he's not going to be going around calling me Hermione every minute of every day, especially around other people, but I just felt like it was a big moment and I needed to-"

"Hermione. Shush. We're not going to say anything to anyone. But, wow, that's such a huge step." Ginny said.

"Yeah, Hermione. I mean, I always knew he had feelings for you, for years now you can tell, but the fact that he was breaking out of his old self, the one that teased you because he liked you, and embracing his feelings for you. Oh, I'm so happy for you both." Luna said.

"Thanks, Luna, both of you. Really, I'm very happy, but now I feel guilty for even mentioning it. But, regardless, I am very happy. It is a bit weird though, I am so used to him calling me Granger. And the way that he says it has such a raw power to it, but when he called me Hermione, it was like he was saying something that was so delicate that it could shatter at any moment."

"It must have been weird for him too." Ginny suggested.

"Yeah, the whole situation was actually a strange one, but that's a story for another time. I need to get back into planning all of these events. So, Ginny, can I leave a lot of the decoration and menu planning up to you? Take who you need from the prefects to help and just make sure to show me what you decide upon so I can check it over. Although, I'm not sure I'll know what I'm looking at, so my faith is with you my dear ginger friend."

"That's all good with me, Hermione. Luna, did you want to help me pick out some fabric? I've got some catalogues up in my room, I could meet you back here in ten minutes if you want to help?"

"Oh, Ginny I would love to. You know I'm quite the designer, Daddy even let me design my own bedroom, it is rather lovely."

Hermione, remembering what Lunas bedroom looked like, smiled. "I'll let you two get on with it then, I've got to go see if Harry and Draco will work on something together for me. I'm hoping to catch them before class."

"What, no Ron?" Teased Ginny.

"I'm not sure that I feel like speaking to him yet, and besides even if I did he wouldn't want to work closely on anything with Draco. Actually, I'm not sure that he would want to work on anything at all, really. Even if it is about quidditch."

"Well, tell the boys that if they need any help with it to let me know, sometimes these things need a girls touch."

"I need you to focus on this ball, I'm sure the boys will be able to handle it, and if not I'll let them know you're there to help out if need be. See you both later, enjoy your free period." Said Hermione, as she picked up her bag and walked out of the library to go and find Draco or Harry. Strangely, she had a feeling she would find them together. They were both acting fishy before, and she was certain that they were up to something.


Draco received a letter from his father in the early hours of the morning, he knew that this was the safest for his father to send them, but it made it very difficult for him. Particularly when he was sleeping in another room, in the bed of the woman that his father wanted to hurt. It made it particularly difficult for him to get any sleep, mainly because he had to keep a listen for any owls tapping on his bedroom window. It was also difficult because when he did drift off to sleep several times he was awoken not long after clinging to Granger for dear life after having a horrible nightmare.

Just before dawn he had heard the tapping and had quietly padded into his room to receive the owl, not bothering to open it yet, but putting it in his book bag tucked away in a side pocket to look at later. He'd woken Granger up, getting back into bed just as the sun was rising and any hopes of getting a little more shut eye had gone out the window when she turned over to him, the first rays of sun bouncing off her breasts as she reached out to pull down his pyjama pants. Draco happily forgot about the sleep that he was missing and enjoyed himself until she declared she had to go and run some errands.

Now Draco sat on the couch awaiting Potters arrival before class so that they could read through the letter that he received. They were guaranteed no interruptions by Granger because she was off running her errands with Ginny. A knock on the door could be heard, causing Draco to spring off the couch and practically sprint to the portrait, which he swung open to reveal a scruffy Potter.

"You look worse than I feel." Commented Draco.

"Ginny." Replied Potter, with a slight grin. Draco just laughed and patted him on the back. Potter was a lot funnier than he had ever imagined and found himself almost enjoying the time they had to spend together. He almost wanted to make a similar comment about Hermione, but figured that may be taking things too far, as he did see her as a sister. Where as Potter could freely make all the comments he wanted about Ginny to Draco, because he wasn't Ron and she wasn't his sister.

Draco summoned some tea for them as they sat down to look over the letter.

"Haven't looked at it yet." He said, trying to keep his nervousness out of his voice. "Been waiting for you."

"Well, go ahead." Potter said, taking a sip of his tea.

Draco read the letter out loud to Potter, stuttering over some of the crueler sentences, wishing that he could have a normal father who didn't hate the girl whom he was dating. Or that didn't hate people in general. When he finished reading the letter he looked up at Potter who had a look of disgrace on his face.

"That was disgusting." Said Potter.

"Bet you're glad you didn't have to grow up with that." Draco said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I grew up with some bad stuff, but nothing like that. I really am sorry, mate." Potter said, and it sounded genuine.

"Thanks, I guess." Draco said, fiddling with the edges of the paper. "It wasn't so bad when he was away though. My mother really is nice."

"Yeah, I know. She saved my life, after all."

They shared a slightly awkward silence for awhile before they started discussing their next moves.

"So your father is going to venture into Hogsmeade next Saturday, which gives us just under a week to plan this perfectly." Said Potter, summoning a pad and quill, and getting ready to take notes. "So, you're going to meet him in the alley way behind the two broomsticks."

"Wait, what about the hogs head, wouldn't that be better. It's dead there."

"Funnily enough, I've made that mistake once before. A crowded place means less chance of others really taking note of what you're doing and who you're with. Your father will of course be disguised, so it's not like people will actually know that Lucius Malfoy is in the bar, it will look like a stranger to people who aren't paying attention."

"And what if there are people who are going to pay attention?" Malfoy asked.

"Well, it's not like you'll be in the pub, for the conversation that we wouldn't want overheard. And I'll be invisible, and keeping a watch around the corner. I'll also put in place a spell so that your conversation doesn't get overheard unless you're within a certain radius of the both of you." Harry said, looking pretty happy with his own genius, although Malfoy figured that it was probably similar to countless plans plotted by Granger in the past.

"And where did you find a spell like that?" Malfoy asked, interested in where a spell he didn't know of came from.

"Snape." Harry mumbled.

"Snape? Snape! My godfather told you of a spell he created, but I didn't get to know. His own godson." Said Malfoy, outraged.

"Well, he didn't tell me about it. When I learnt it I didn't know that it was created by Snape, it was simply scribbled in a potions book that I had been using." Harry explained.

"Wait a moment. Was this in sixth year? Is that why you did so well in Potions and Slughorn loved you? Because you were using a cheat book to get to the head of the class? If I remember correctly you were doing even better than Granger. I bet that pissed her off." Said Draco with a sly smile.

"Yes, well, she certainly wasn't happy with me. Malfoy, we better get to the plan at hand." Said Potter.

"Okay, so my father will be coming next weekend, we'll make sure to let him know that he needs to be well disguised in our next letter." Draco said, scribbling down the beginnings of their plan.

Just as they began to discuss their plans a door to the room they were in made a creaking sound and both Wizards jumped up from their seats and raised their wands at the kitchenette area that the noise had come from. Being so young and having survived a war, both Wizards were more than alert and ready in situations such as this. There was probably no harm to whatever the noise had been, it could have been a ghost, or simply a gust of wind, but considering their topic of conversation they couldn't be too careful.

"Who's there?" Draco called.

After a moment or two of silence a sheepish Granger poked her head around the corner and looked in curiously at the two of them. They'd been caught, and they could only hope due to the fact that she wasn't yelling or accusing them of things that she hadn't heard anything of importance.

"How long have you been standing there, Hermione?" Potter asked, with what Draco could only imagine he had meant with offhand interest, but realistically came across a lot more like he had a lot to hide.

Which of course, they did, that was the whole point of meeting in secret. But Draco was a natural liar and could have pulled that off a lot better than Potter. Hopefully they could still save themselves, but judging by the look of anger that was forming on Grangers face he was beginning to doubt it.

"I'll give you two one chance to explain to me what's going on here." Granger said.

Draco opened his mouth to begin spurting off some roundabout story that would convince her nothing was going on. Nothing dangerous or concerning her, anyway.

"Not you, Draco. I want Harry to tell me." Said Granger, and he could tell it was because of how lousy Potter was at lying. Potter chanced a worried glance at Draco, who gave him a slight nod of the head in return before looking straight into Grangers eyes with a curious look on his face, as if he wasn't sure why she were even mad or confused in the first place. A look that made it seem as if Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter hanging out together was a normal occurrence. Which, ironically, it was actually becoming to be one, however only the two of them knew that.

"Well, Malfoy and I were just discussing - er- we were talking about how we wanted to have a quidditch match sometime soon. He's feeling stroppy that he hasn't caught the snitch against me, and I said that I'd be happy to let him lose to me again soon. We were just discussing teams-"

"Harry James Potter don't you lie to me." Granger growled, and if Draco hadn't been worried about Potters lie getting them caught he would have been turned on by the power and control that she was showing.

"But we really were-" Potter began to explain but Granger quickly cut him off.

"Oh, yes you most certainly were planning a little game of quidditch! Yes, yes, I definitely believe you. So let me guess your team would be you, Ron, maybe a couple more gryffindors, Ginny might be interested you never know. And then you Draco," She said, glaring into his eyes. "You'd have Blaise, obviously, maybe you might even owl your father and see if he wanted to join? Would I be right?"

"I'm not sure why you'd think I'd want anything to do with that man." Draco said.

"Oh? Well then, please, one of you go ahead and explain to me why you were talking about him just now."

"I, er" Said Potter.

"Granger, really, you don't have to worry about it, it really is nothing."

"Nothing? If it were nothing don't you think you wouldn't have a problem letting me know about it? Oh, hey Hermione, you're hairs looking particularly big today and by the way Harry Potter and I are going to be hanging out today and talking about my father who would love nothing more than seeing your blood spilt, okay have a good day." She said, seething.

"We didn't want to worry you." Said Potter honestly.

"Harry, we've been through this so many times before. I'm good with issues, I'm a natural problem solver, let me in and I can help you."

"We don't want your help with this." Draco said, and it came out a lot colder than he had hoped.

"And why not?" She asked, her hands on her hips.

"Because," he exclaimed "We're trying to protect you."

"Protect me?" She basically spat the word. "You don't think I can protect myself?"

"It's not that." Draco tried to reason.

"Then what, Draco? Because you men always think you can protect me, but in reality I am more than capable of doing that for myself" She said angrily, her face going red.

"But you don't understand, you don't know what he is capable of."

"Who? Your father? I've seen some of the things he is capable of. And if he's anything like his dead sister-in-law then I definitely know what he's capable of." She said, ripping down the sleeve of her robe and exposing her scar.

"Granger please, we're only trying to help you here." Draco pleaded.

"We promise, Hermione, we have your best interest at heart." Harry said.

"Well then, let me tell you something, it is in your best interest to start telling me everything right now. I mean it. Everything." She said.

They boys ended up having to cave, despite them having her best interests at heart and wanting to protect her now that she had caught them there was no way they were able to keep her out of the loop. So they started from the beginning, explaining everthing but without going into detail of the letters that lucius had wrote. There was no way Draco was going to subject her to such a thing, they were horrible and even made him want to hurl with disgust.

"Let me see them Malfoy," She all but growled. And her use of his last name wasn't lost on him. Despite that, he didn't hand over his hand written copies of them. She had already reached for the originals but found much to his dismay, and to both Draco and Harry's happiness, that she couldn't see any writing on it.

"What did you do?" She asked, flipping the parchment over to try and see if anything was written on the other side, only to find it as blank as the other.

"Nothing. My father placed a spell on it so that only I could read it, so no one else would find out what we were up to. He obviously doesn't think that I'd be working together with someone like Harry Potter to thwart him." Draco said with a smirk. As much as he tried to dislike Harry, he couldn't help that he enjoyed how much his father would hate that he was dating Hermione Granger and hanging around with Harry Potter. The only thing that would top that would be if he was best friends with the Weasel too, but that was never, ever going to happen.

"Please let me see your written copy, Draco. Please." She begged, her lips forming an almost-pout. If he didn't really want her never see what was written on the letters, he would have easily given in to her pleading.

"No, Granger. Really, you know what you need to know about this. Just know they're not kind and you're much better off not knowing what they say." Draco pressed, determined not to let her see those words.

"Fine." She said, crossing her hands across her chest and dropping into the chair.

"What are you doing here anyway, Malfoy said you were running errands." Potter said.

"I came looking for you guys to ask you if you'd help with the planning for a quidditch tournament. I've got the girls working on a ball, but I needed you guys to help with this one. Because as you both know I'm not really an expert when it comes to that sport." She said.

"We're happy to help, Hermione." Potter said dutifully.

"Well of course I have to help regardless." Draco said.

"Because you're seeing her?" Potter asked.

"Technically because I'm head boy. That was more or less what I was going for." Draco said, and he didn't know how he felt that Potter said they were 'seeing each other'. Deep down he actually knew he felt thrilled, but there was still that pang of guilt that he knew shouldn't exist anymore, he didn't believe in any of the pureblood bullshit they rattled on about, but years of brainwashing made it hard for him to forget completely. "And a little because we're seeing each other. Hey Potter this means that I'll finally be able to beat you to the snitch."

"You wish, Malfoy." Said Potter, although any of the hate that had once seethed out through his words once upon a time had now ceased. There was still rivalry there, and he would do what he could to beat him to the snitch, but he wouldn't do anything horrible to do it. His win would be a fair win.

Draco moved over to the seat Granger was sitting on and wrapped his arm around her. She gave him a peck on the cheek. Potter looked away in disgust, but he had a hunch that he was faking it to keep up appearances. He was pretty certain that Potter was just happy that she was happy. I suppose that's how he felt about Pansy being with Ron, so long as he treated her right he didn't mind that she was dating someone he didn't care much for.

It seemed that Granger had distracted them both fully because she took that opportunity to snatch the pieces of parchment that Draco had forgotten he was holding out of his hands and sprinted to her room, quickly casting various spells on the door to lock them out. Before they could get through into her room from the bathroom that connected through Draco's room she had cast several locking charms on that too.

Draco swore loudly as he sunk down the door and tried to listen to her as she read what was possibly one of the most offensive letters ever. He was just relieved that she couldn't read the replied that they had to write to make it sound like Draco hadn't changed and that he was on board with their cause. That was the only bright side of this situation.

He wasn't sure but between Potter banging on her door and shouting to get her to let him in Draco was fairly sure that he could hear her whimpers and sniffs. He should have taken them away the moment she had wanted to look at them, he shouldn't have underestimated her cunningness. He wished she would open the bathroom door to let him in, he just wanted to hold her and tell her they were just words.

But Draco Malfoy was aware how much words hurt. Words were scathing things that ripped into your very soul and stayed there. He'd been called some very awful things by people like his father. People who hated him for not killing people in the war, for not telling them it was Potter and his friends when he knew it was, for wanting out and not being committed enough to Voldemorts cause. For leaving the war, for choosing family over dying for a cause he didn't believe in.

His mother may have left for the same reasons Draco had, but his father was simply trying to save himself a long, long stint in Azkaban. And now, now he wanted to make sure that Draco had his back. Well, his father would soon find out that he didn't, and that he was very upset that his father could be making his girlfriend feel anything but joy in a world that she fought so gallantly to protect. He would protect her now.