HPOV

I had been waiting about fifteen minutes before my floo finally lit up and Malfoy stepped out.

"Merlin, what took you so long?" I asked with a smirk, grabbing my purse from the table by the door, "We're already late."

"Sorry." said Malfoy, running a hand through his hair as he looked around the living room.

"Come on." I said with an eye roll, pressing a kiss to his cheek and tugging him back toward the floo.

"The Burrow!" I shouted, and a few moments later we were tumbling out of the fireplace at the Weasley's - and of course everyone was already there.

I'd promised Ginny that we would do an early Christmas at the Burrow since I wouldn't be there on the day - and as long as no food was served and he wasn't expected to stay for more than two hours, Malfoy had agreed to tag along.

"What took you two so long?" asked Gin with a laugh, making room on the couch for the two of us.

"Malfoy showed up fashionably late." I said wryly, smirking at Malfoy at having said hello to Molly and Arthur.

Not that he would've noticed, he was too busy looking around the Burrow. I elbowed him in the side and he said, "Yeah, that was my fault."

I frowned and asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." he said, "I didn't expect -" he stopped himself, shaking his head, and didn't say anything else.

"Didn't expect what?" I asked softly. I knew that he hadn't been thrilled about coming here, but I'd definitely told him what to expect.

Besides, Bill and Percy weren't even here, so it was less hectic than it would've been had they and their families come as well.

Malfoy simply shook his head and said nothing, his eyes fixed on the Christmas tree in the center of the living room.

Ginny shot me a questioning look, but I simply shrugged. I had no idea what was going on with him today. Maybe something had happened with his parents?

"Well, people have already started opening presents - Ron and the twins couldn't wait - so here." said Ginny, handing me two wrapped gifts, "They're from Harry and I."

I smiled and pulled the gifts I had brought with me out of my pocket and quickly un-shrunk them, handing one to Gin, one to Harry, and then floated the rest of them in front of the corresponding Weasley.

Ginny's gift was a beautiful cashmere sweater that was probably the nicest thing I owned, and Harry's gift was a book I'd had my eye on for months on Dragon reform, but it'd been way out of my budget.

"These are amazing! You guys really shouldn't have." I said, hugging them both. After they'd opened their gifts - a new set of quidditch gloves for Harry and a magical picture frame for Gin with all of us in it - Ginny cleared her throat and said, "Alright, Malfoy. Don't say I never did anything nice for you."

She reached over me, handing Malfoy a small wrapped box that he hesitantly took. Instead of opening it, though, he simply stared at it before glancing up at Gin.

"I didn't get you anything."

She rolled her eyes, "Shocking. I knew you wouldn't. Open it."

Malfoy shook his head and said, "I don't want this."

"Malfoy -"

"Can we go? I have to talk to you." he interrupted, setting the gift on couch beside him and standing.

I was thankful that Harry and Gin were the only two who were witnessing this - the rest of the Weasley's caught up in their presents.

"Don't be a git, Malfoy." said Harry, "You only just got here."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes at him, but before he could say anything I stood, "What is going on with you? You said that you were okay with coming here."

He snorted, "There's no way I would say that."

I narrowed my eyes and said, "Yes you did. What are you on about?"

"Can we go?" he asked again, crossing his arms as he looked over at the fireplace.

"You can go." I said, sitting back down, "I'm not leaving."

It seemed like he was releasing a deep breath through his nose before he asked, "Well will you join me in the kitchen for a moment, Hermione?"

I frowned, watching as he disappeared around the corner toward the kitchen.

I could count on one hand the number of times he'd called me Hermione, let alone, how did he know where the Weasley's kitchen was? He'd never been here before.

"What's crawled up his arse?" asked Gin, snatching the still-wrapped gift from the couch.

"I have no idea." I murmured, "I'm going to talk to him."

I walked into the kitchen and found Malfoy leaning against the counter staring off into space, but he quickly snapped out of it once he noticed me.

"What's going on with you tonight?" I asked, "Gin was trying to do something nice for you and -"

"I don't care." said Malfoy, moving to face me completely.

"What do you mean you don't care?" I asked, trying to keep my voice down as I moved to stand in front of him. "You two have been getting on great and -"

"I couldn't care less about any of your friends." he snorted, arms crossed over his chest.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This didn't seem like Malfoy at all. His eyes were devoid of any of the warmth I'd come to expect there - in fact, even during the War he'd been more life-like than this.

"In fact," he said with a smirk - a smirk that wasn't his - "I couldn't care less about you either, Mudblood."

"What?" I gasped, taking a step away from him. "What are you -"

"My mother was right about you, you know?" he taunted, matching each of my steps until I was back against the opposite counter, "You're not worthy to kiss the ground I stand on."

His mother?

Suddenly there was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Malfoy would never say anything like that to me. After everything, I knew that he wouldn't agree with his mother. Not after what she'd tried to do - not after what he'd done because of it.

I had no idea if she'd cast an Imperious on him or if this was someone else entirely simply polyjuiced to look like Malfoy.

One thing became painfully obvious in that moment, though - either way, this was not Malfoy.

NPOV

"You've absolutely lost your mind!"

I laughed, watching as Draco struggled to free himself from the chair I'd bound him to as soon as Lucius had brought him back to the Manor.

"No, dear. It seems I'm the only one who's still got any sense left." I said easily, trailing my fingers over his cheek, "Your father had to be...persuaded to assist me, but that's no matter. Soon enough you'll all see things the correct way again."

"What are you talking about? Why are you doing this?"

"Your father is breaking your Mudblood's heart as we speak. Once that's done, the two of you will take this beautiful potion," I said, motioning to the sparkling purple vials sitting on the tea service tray by the door, "And we can forget that any of this ever happened."

I would fix everything. I would have my family back.

His eyes widened and he shook his head, "You don't have to do this, Mother."

"Oh my dear boy, of course I do. A mother always knows best - and I know I've mucked it up by sullying our name with the likes of her, but I'm fixing it. You just have to trust me."

"Trust you?" he shouted, struggling against the binds once again, "How can I trust you? You're taking everything from me."

Before I realized it, I struck him across the cheek, grabbing his chin as I spat, "She is nothing. How dare you spew such utter rubbish."

"You don't get it." he snapped, shaking my hand off, "I love her, Mother."

I gasped, taking a few steps back.

He loved her? How? Salazar, all of this was my fault.

"No," I said, shaking my head, "I don't believe that."

He snorted, the red handprint on his face a stark contrast to his pale skin, "Believe what you want - you've clearly gone mad - but it won't change the facts. I do love her, and regardless of what you do, she will find a way to fix this."

"You give her too much credit." I scoffed, moving to leave the room. I had more to do.

"You don't give her enough."

DPOV

My mother had lost her bloody mind.

Completely. Bloody. Mental.

I had no idea what my father was planning on doing to Granger - I didn't think that my mother would've ordered him to kill her, but could I really be sure about that after everything?

I mean she'd fucking kidnapped me for fuck's sake.

The panic I felt at losing Granger was more intense than anything I'd felt before - it nearly made me sick. If anything happened to her -

I couldn't think like that.

I needed to focus. I needed to get out of here and find her.

The only plus side to this entire situation was that we were supposed to have been at the Burrow tonight, so she was still safe. She had to be.

It was obvious that the only way I was getting out of here was with wandless magic, and I was fairly good at it, but if I was going to be able to break whatever spell my mother had used was another matter entirely.

I started flicking through a mental catalog of spells, trying each one, but getting nowhere.

Fuck.

How the fuck was I going to get out of here? I couldn't just wait for my mother to get back. I couldn't wait for whatever my father was going to do to Granger. The absolute helplessness that I felt was disgusting. It took me back to the War. Back to watching her.

I would never be that weak again.

What if I could conjure a patronus?

I scoffed at the idea almost as soon as I'd thought of it. I'd never managed to manifest a patronus, what with never having a memory happy enough to create one.

Although, since having met Granger, it felt like I had plenty of those happy memories.

With one more useless tug on the binds at my wrists I made up my mind.

What was the harm in trying?

I closed my eyes and focused. I thought about Granger and all the time we'd spent together. I thought about how happy she'd been when I'd gotten Brill back for her. I thought about how excited she'd been when her Shepherd's pie had come out right - even with my help. I thought about the moment in my kitchen when I realized I loved her.

And then I felt it. The slightest pull of my magic, and when I opened my eyes, there it was.

My fucking patronus.

I almost laughed with relief. I had finally conjured my patronus.

It was a small, wispy dragon that stared back at me with wide eyes, obviously waiting for my message.

"Find Hermione Granger." I said, watching as it hovered in front of me, "Get the Aurors. I'm at the Manor."

There was so much more that I wanted to say, but I knew that I needed to keep it short.

With a small nod of my head, my patronus took off, leaving me alone once again.

Only this time, I had some hope. My mother might underestimate Granger, but there was no way I was going to make that same mistake.