Chapter 48 summary: Andromeda believes that her soul is split and Lucius offers is assistance in finding out if she is or not. Hermione becomes even more obsessive with school work as she helps Harry prepare for the first trial. Hermione's teeth are fixed. Hermione helps Krum hide form annoying fangirls and he is grateful. Hermione fires Dr. Augsen. Hermione tells Draco about Osman Fudge. Osman Fudge tells the Minister how he killed his parents, Umbridge has a cameo.

TW: Su*cide mention, some graphic details of death.

"''Mrs Phelps, who had been watching her with fascination for the past few weeks, now got up from her desk and went over to her. "Can I help you, Matilda?" she asked.''"

""I'm wondering what to read next," Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books.""

""You mean you've looked at the pictures?""

""Yes, but I've read the books as well.""

Lucius saw the little tanned hand rise above the edge of the children's book he was reading out loud, but he pulled the book closer to his face to pretend he had trouble reading the words in front of him.

"Mrs Phelps looked down at-"

"Mr. Malfoy?" It was a request. A polite and simple request, he mentally reiterated. It was a struggle not to heave a heavy sigh, so he settled for removing the monocle from his slightly weaker eye before fixing his gaze on the young girl. The glass was a new addition, something that Narcissa believed to be caused by too many stray hexes, but was choosing to show up now.

"Yes, Miss Tabitha?"

"Can you do the voices?"

Lucius' eyes narrowed a fraction of a millimetre. He was hyper-aware of his actions around the children of Loving Hands Orphanage , even when it came to the witty, sharp-tongued Tabitha. He was convinced she was the bane of his existence at the orphanage, despite her younger sister seeming to take a liking to him. "I'm not sure I know what voices you're referring to." He knew exactly what voices she was referring to.

And it was something that Tabitha was also aware of. She gave him a would-be sweet smile on any other eight year old girl. "The different character voices!" When he just stared at her, she added, "Mrs. Malfoy does the voices. It makes it less confusing when there is more than one person talking."

That was when the other kids joined in, making happy and encouraging, incoherent murmurs at the mention of the intimidating husband of Mrs. Malfoy putting on a small act for them. "If you insist." He held one palm up to quiet the children as he found his place on the gray page of Matilda. He paused to gather his dignity, only to shove it to the side as he continued.

"' Mrs Phelps looked down at Matilda from her great height and Matilda looked right back up at her.'" He sighed as a way to reset his emotions, the last preparation before he spoke in the highest pitched voice he could manage: "'"I thought some were very poor," Matilda said, "but others were lovely. I liked The Secret Garden best of all. It was full of mystery. The mystery of the room behind the closed door and the mystery of the garden behind the big wall."'"

The children in front of him started to giggle and laugh, especially the boys, but they were quickly quieted by one child who pressed a single index finger to her lips, before loudly saying, "SHHHH!"

He looked up to see Talia, frowning at his protesters, unaware that her own sister was trying to hold in her own giggle. He stared at her, surprise plain on his features as he was sure that was the first time she had ever said anything in his presence. Narcissa had informed him that she was a quiet one. It concerned his wife as she refused to speak to anyone but Tabitha.

When she was satisfied that the others were not going to continue being a disruption, she looked up at him with a large grin – something pleasant that only a child her age could manage. Her smile wasn't perfect, as there were gaps between each tooth, but he happily turned back to her favourite book to keep her smiling. Unfortunately for Talia, they were disrupted by someone else clearing their throat.

Lucius looked up to see Andromeda standing there, clearly , having heard him do his best impression of four year and three month old Matilda. She had her fingers pressed to her lips as if to physically hold down her laughter before she regained the ability to make her announcement. "It's about lunch time, children." When all nine heads looked back at her, she waved the newspaper she was holding in the direction of the door near Lucius. "Narcissa will be waiting in the cafeteria."

Several of the boys sighed a hungry ' yes ' as they sprang from their seats on the colourful, children's carpet they dedicated to reading time. The rest of the group tried to quickly follow, but not without Lucius' warning: "Young men and young women do not run! It is ill-mannered and-"

They were gone. Much to Lucius' chagrin, the children responded better to Narcissa and Andromeda, no matter how kind he was with them.

Lucius expected Andromeda to follow the children, but instead she joined him at the front of the room. He watched her with guarded curiosity and felt himself straighten up as she tried to find the right words to create polite small talk with him. After what was a full minute of her being unable to conjure honest, but polite words, she said the first thing on her mind: "I am surprised that you have such a way with the kids. If my sister would have told me that you used different voices when reading, I would have suggested she have a full psych evaluation." There was thinly laced snark in her words, but it wasn't as potent as it usually was. In fact, her hate seemed to be mixed in with genuine curiosity, something he hadn't heard since the day she decided he was worth hating.

Lucius gave her a once over despite knowing that Andromeda - like her sisters - had never buckled under his stare. "I was told that Narcissa did the same. It's only right we appear as a pair."

Andromeda's dark eyebrows raised in mild surprise that gave way to amusement. "Did Tabitha tell you that?"

The only way Andromeda was able to tell that a nerve had been struck within Lucius was that his nostrils flared. Having the young girl criticize the clothing choices he made was one thing, but the fact that she had bamboozled him into acting a fool for entertainment was another.

Andromeda laughed when he didn't respond. "I'm surprised you're reading muggle literature at all. I would have assumed you thought it was... beneath you."

If she was anyone else, he would have replied with something nasty, but he was attempting to turn over a new leaf. Lucius had never cared if Andromeda liked him before, and with each day that had passed this week, he was able to reflect upon the times it put Narcissa in a hard place. He wanted to eliminate that strain on her, along with him harboring the hope that if he could win over his sister-in-law, who hated him for decades , then he could fix his relationship with Draco.

"While I may not have always practiced tolerance, I have always believed in tact." Lucius spoke slowly, giving him time to catch any reactions she might have displayed. After Andromeda had appeared at the Manor last Saturday, their conversations had become a chess match. One did not know how to act around the other, thus causing them to circle like tensed predators, watching each other as they gauged the threat before them. "If I did not uproot Hermione's upbringing when she was taken into my care, I won't do the same to children who are only temporarily in my care."

Andromeda cocked her head to the side, as if Lucius was nothing more than a talking puzzle. "Is that what she is to you? A way to calculate what acceptable behavior is?" Lucius didn't miss what was unsaid in her query. She wanted to bait him with a taunt, but just like him, she was practising good behavior.

Still, being nice didn't mean he had to bare his throat to her simply because she treated him with civility. "Is there something you need from me, Andromeda?"

She blinked once, then twice when she curled her shoulders forward. The hostile air between them dropped immediately once she broke eye contact. "I was wondering if you had heard any news from your… sources." The word was spoken with caution, hoping he wouldn't force her to say what she was inquiring about. Andromeda thought the less she knew about the help she was receiving, the better.

Lucius pulled out his wand and cast a homenum revelio. Once he was satisfied that the room was confirmed to be empty, he locked both doors and placed a muffliato around them for good measure.

"You're terribly cautious." She remarked.

Lucius thought back to the time he caught Draco listening in to Hermione's first group session through the floo fire at the Manor. "And you have never caught Nymphadora listening in on your conversations."

"You know her name." Andromeda couldn't help but be surprised by the fact. She wondered if Narcissa burned her daughter's name off the family tapestry when it first appeared. She assumed she had as they had not made up by the time she gave birth.

"Of course I know my niece's name. It is only because I was under the impression you were cut off longer than you were that she has not received any gifts from Narcissa and I." He quirked an eyebrow as a thought occurred to him. "Or at least I haven't sent anything."

"Narcissa never missed a birthday." Andromeda gave a small, but genuine smile then. No matter how sour her mood, the thought of her child always put a smile on her face. It wasn't shocking to know that a memory involving Tonks was how she conjured her patronus. "It's on May eleventh. If you were wondering." She added the last part and swallowed as she remembered who she was talking to. "And they liked to be called Tonks, even by me."

Birthdays, just like names, weighed heavily with the fae. Divulging either bit of information was almost as intense as handing your enemy a dagger and baring your chest. In this case though, it was like holding out an olive branch.

An olive branch that Lucius had been waiting for Andromeda to grab the other end of ever since he offered to help find information that would put her at ease.

Finally, he felt less like they were circling predators, and more like allies. "You didn't kill him."

The Daily Prophet paper she had been holding slipped from her grip. " What ?"

He would have laughed from catching the careful woman off guard, but even he knew that this information meant something . Lucius hoped to use it somehow, although he did not see how Osman Fudge held any significance to him. Lucius was patient, though, as he was aware that sometimes the best cards you have are ones that you have to sit on for months or even years.

"You have no blood on your hands, your soul is in one piece. My… sources , as you put it, know I want them to look past what the standard coroner would find." Lucius passed Andromeda the stool he had been seated on and she shakily sat down, her chest heaving from the news. He then removed two tiny manila envelopes from inside his trouser pocket and relieved them of the shrinking charm, providing Andromeda with a copy of the reports. "I took the liberty of asking them to investigate the late Mrs. Fudge's death since their bodies were stored in the same location. While she did in fact die of a self-inflicted killing curse, my sources found her in a pugilistic attitude."

Andromeda, having been educated in a different medical branch than her sister, was unfamiliar with the stance and had looked up with him with questioning eyes. She had yet to remove any of the documents from the envelopes as she was afraid her hands were not steady enough to keep them from falling to the floor.

"Pugilistic attitude is common in burn victims," he continued, " or someone who died whilst under the imperius curse due to the magical core-"

"The coronor's reports wouldn't have ruled it as a suicide, then." Her voice was low and her dark brows were furrowed. "The Ministry would have looked into the death of a former Minister and his wife."

"The Wizagamont is short-sighted and unpresuming of anything that does not present itself as auspicious to them or the gold in their vaults." He had placed one hand behind his back so Andromeda was unaware of how tightly fisted his hand was. He still held on to a lot of anger and resentment towards the Wizagamont. "Sirius would have had a fair trial if the Ministry cared more about its citizens rather than the fragile bubble they chose to live in."

Andromeda's eyes brightened at the mention of her favorite cousin. "The lack of trial was unfair, but the evidence was overwhelming-"

"And yet Narcissa still pleaded for Dumbledore to speak out on his behalf as soon as our names were cleared." Lucius could feel the strain their shared olive branch was being put under. He had not anticipated Sirius being a sensitive subject - a misstep that he would not make again if he was able to keep his good standing with Andromeda. "And your leader - head of The Order of the Phoenix - let him go to Azkaban. We knew he wasn't with us and our word was nothing. Dumbledore, as Narcissa kept reminding me, was on the Wizgamont and was working with the Ministry through the first war." It was his turn to turn his head to the side. "Yet no one came forward. Not Mad-Eye, not Arthur Weasley, or-" you , he nearly said.

She saw it in his eyes regardless and Andromeda deflated once more, hugging the envelopes to herself. Too many times this week she felt as if she had been torn in two. Uprooted was the word he used earlier, and she found it quite fitting. "Or anyone else who worked for the Ministry at that time," he finished. He didn't bring up how his wife was still upset about it, despite how she acted aloof when Sirius was brought up, and Andromeda knew her sister well enough for it to remain unspoken between them.

He turned to the side and started to pace. He attempted to keep his footsteps light and after letting some time pass, he continued. "As for Cornelius Fudge, the murder is more evident."

"Murder?" The word being said out loud snapped her out of the guilty stupor she had sunk into. She shook her head, reminding herself that was the topic of the conversation at hand. "Of course. Go on."

"He died of cardiac arrest, there is no doubt about that." He stopped pacing and faced her head on. "But it seemed that it was induced with something more natural than not." Lucius' eyebrows came together as he remembered trying to read the notes on their deaths himself. He had asked Narcissa to explain the use of a muggle needle and she had to remind him of how she had poisoned the wine bottle she gifted Cornelius Fudge several months before the gala. "Whoever had killed Cornelius and his wife has a background in the health field and an interest in muggles - or at least their methods of medicine. Something that Osman is known for, is he not?"

Andromeda shook her head. "No mentally-well child would kill their parent, Lucius." He didn't say anything, only stared at her until she answered his question. "Osman is a kind man, I am in contact with him regularly. He studied hard at Dumstrang and went to the same medical university I did. He's done amazing things as head of the Janus Thickey Ward and-"

"I'm sure you can find a diagnosis to explain how he is both unwell and charismatic." Lucius waved a dismissive hand. "Of course, I could be wrong. Their illegally acquired autopsy reports are the only evidence thus far-"

"A lot of people wanted him dead," Andromeda dismissed. What Lucius was insinuating was… she didn't want to fathom it. ' Not yet.' "Do you… What do I owe you?"

Lucius tilted his chin up, but accepted the subject being moved along. "I never said you would owe me anything."

"You didn't have to," she quipped. She swallowed and crossed her ankles, waiting for his price. "I would prefer not to feel in debt to you."

"Ah, well," Lucius raised his eyebrows at her, deciding to get straight to the point. "Perhaps help with Hermione and Draco?" She blinked at him and he cleared his throat, ready to go over all the reasons he practised in the mirror. It was something he had not done in years, but the possibility of him appearing inept or meek in regards to his parenting skills had him taking extra precautions. "I fear there is, ah, a disconnect that is more than just a generational gap-"

"Of course," she promised, saving him the trouble of explaining himself. Andromeda looked around for the day's paper and saw that it was never retrieved from the floor. Holding a hand out, it lifted from the ground and into her waiting hand. "That's going to require a lot of work, but I actually needed to talk to you and my sister about this."

Unfolding the front page and facing it towards him, he saw Harry Potter being forced into a photo with Rita Skeeter. The article took up the entire page, yet it wasn't the photo or the headline that caught his eye. What Lucius fixated on was a smaller, candid photo that was taken of Hermione on Hogwarts' grounds.

Unlike the circular photo that Harry and Rita were moving around in, Hermione's was framed in the shape of a frilly, tatted lace heart. He frowned at that.

Lucius had thought to talk to Draco about being careful with relations, but not Hermione.

Draco watched Hermione work with an undying fervour. It had been the first time since they woke up in the music room together that she had pulled her hair back. Even then, he noticed that it wasn't the tight bun or the severely high-placed ponytail she usually had it in, but a low-slung ponytail that allowed her curls to maintain their full size while staying out of her way.

Typically, Draco liked seeing her angry – charged, really - almost as if she was ready for a fight, because it was sometimes the most alive he would see her. "Osman Fudge killed my parents, and I want him dead." Ever since she had said those heated words to him, he had noticed a change in her anger. It was somehow calmer now.

Deadly, even.

Usually when he goaded her into showing her wit through barbed exchanges, it ended with them laughing as they half-heartedly took the mickey out of each other. Now she was completely unapproachable, which was a problem, as he decided that he wanted to talk to her about the kiss. Draco was afraid. He saw what she could do with a wand first-hand now – something he found very attractive – and wouldn't put it past her to hex him on the spot if he didn't tread carefully.

Before he could ponder how, or even when he would approach the subject of them , she groaned loudly and pressed the palm of her hands into her eye sockets. "Si Harry survit à ça, je me jette dans la gueule du Sphinx quand on rentre au Manoir!"

Draco let out a barking laughter. "Quoi?"

She looked up and laced her fingers under her chin and looked at him before repeating herself once more in French: " You heard me. I said if Harry survives this, I am going to feed myself to the Sphinx when we return to the Manor."

"Oh, is that right?"

She nodded the affirmative before she looked back down at her notes on dragons. She wished the most eventful part of yesterday had been her getting her teeth fixed, but alas, some unseen force apparently predetermined that Harry wasn't deserving of an easy life; when Hermione saw Harry at dinner, he filled her in about the weighing of the wands and that Hagrid had intercepted him earlier in the day to say he wanted to meet with him at midnight. Hermione reminded him of Sirius' owl asking Harry to meet in the common room at one a.m.. She told Harry he would need to reschedule the meeting with Hagrid, as it was too late to send Sirius an owl, but Harry carefully weighed his options before deciding that he would be able to make both meetings.

He was right, of course. While he could not have an easy life, Hermione would say he was blessed with copious amounts of luck – if she believed in either blessings or luck. He made it back with minutes to spare before his floo call with Sirius and she sat to the side as he recounted what Hagrid had shown him:

"... and now Hagrid's just shown me what's coming in the first task, and it's dragons, Sirius, and I'm a goner," Harry finished desperately. Hermione's jaw no longer hung open. Instead, her lips were pressed together so hard they were as white as the knuckles of her fist.

"Hermione," Sirius had called after a minute of complete silence. "Are you still there?" She had sat out of sight and to the side, but crawled on her hands and knees to face Sirius in the floo. "Good. Now, both of you listen, "Dragons we can deal with, but we'll get to that in a minute — I haven't got long here... I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."

"What?" The same concern that was in Sirius' eyes was in Harry's voice and Hermione's heart clenched. ' I need to protect him. I need to help Harry.'

"Continue, Mr. Black." She urged. ' If he didn't have time, then he needs to start speaking.'

Sirius looked as if he would correct her, but seemed to come to the same line of logic she had. He also seemed to speak directly to her now. "Karkaroff was a Death Eater." Sirius' eyes never left hers, as if assessing her. Then he spoke carefully: "You know what those are, don't you?"

Hermione fought the urge to lash out at the implied offence against Narcissa and Lucius. She wanted to defend them to their cousin, but again, she reminded herself of his borrowed time. "Of course," she ground out between gritted teeth.

It had turned out they had less time than she thought. Sirius had only just moved past the topic of being wary of Karkaroff when Ron unknowingly interrupted the floo call, causing Sirius to flee and a row to break out about how "she and Harry were probably just snogging."

Hermione felt the journal she was working in be ripped from under her hands. "What-"

"We're taking a break." Draco declared. "I'm not letting you burn out."

"I don't need a break, I need to find a spell that Harry can cast by himself!" Hermione leaned across the desk to snatch her journal back, but he held it away from her before placing it on the seat beside him, where he then put his leg on top of it. She sat back with her arms crossed over her chest. "It's not like you're helping right now! You're just," she tilted her head to the side to look at the drawing in front of him. "You're drawing a blast-ended skrewt."

"An armored blast ended skrewt," he emphasized. It was the newest mutation that the creatures had created and Hermione had not missed how even Hagrid was surprised by it. She rolled her eyes and documented their new growth while Draco whinged loudly during every Care of Magical Creature class they had this week. "I'm not helping you at the moment because between the two of us-" he pointed his graphite pencil at the stack of books closest to him, "we have gone through that pile four times and" -he pointed to the stack next to it- "that pile two times - despite it being nothing but lore and myths-"

"They're often based on truth," she said beneath her breath, but if Draco had heard her, he paid her no mind as he pointed to the smallest stack between them.

"And this pile - the only ones that even hint at a useful spell - five times. You haven't stopped since this morning." They had finally made it through the four weeks of Saturday morning detention with Snape only for Hermione to have another week tacked on due to her hexing Goyle. Draco had expected her to argue, but Hermione simply pressed her lips together until the potions master left. Then she let out a few choice words he surmised she picked up from Weasley. "Not like it matters if Potter isn't down here doing the research with you." Despite his harping, he actually preferred it be the two of them. If Potter was going to be present, he wouldn't be, lest he be forced to acknowledge he was actually helping the bloke.

"Harry is studying, actually." She unfolded her arms and placed her hands in her lap as she stretched. "He's just doing it in the common room so he doesn't have to deal with anyone who has read Rita Skeeter's article."

Hermione had heard the snickers as she passed by the tables, but it wasn't until her renewed subscription to The Daily Prophet had appeared that she realized why. She was so livid with the rubbish Rita Skeeter had written about Harry - whose eyes , according to the editorial, had glistened with the ghosts of his past - that she nearly took it out on Colin Creevey on her way to the dungeons for detention. She tried to remind herself that he was just a third year who had not known any better, but she couldn't help but be upset at what he had contributed to the article:

Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school.

"Aw," Draco feigned pity as he cocked his head to the side. "Is he too ashamed to be seen with his girlfriend now that you've been outed? Not going to cry about it, are you? I'm all out of hankies." Draco had forgotten the age-old advice on not tickling a sleeping dragon.

Hermione, who was already simmering, was now hurt that he joked about something so casually. She knew he was aware of her feelings for him and yet he still chose to joke about it – not to mention that he knew the details of her row with Ron and Ginny.

' Well, I'm not going to wait around for him to grow up,' is what she thought before she said the first thing that came to mind: "I guess my boyfriend will have to console me instead."

Draco waited for her to burst into laughter, thinking that maybe he had been able to get her in a good mood like he had managed in the past, but it didn't happen. Along with the smile that slid off his face, his colour drained. "You're not serious."

"No," Hermione quickly pulled her wand from her sleeve and flicked it. He felt the journal slip from under his thigh and soar to her side of the table where she opened it in front of her again. "But imagine if I was."

Draco didn't need to think about what it would be like if she was taken by someone else; the words did enough to his stomach, his throat, his mind – his very being . The words were there, on the tip of his tongue, but no matter how much he wanted to say them - to ask her if she would allow him to court her - he couldn't. He looked down at the space between them, thinking about how much of a coward he really was when he noticed a stray piece of parchment peeking out from the top of her journal. ' -rry dying in the first task.'

Shoving his inner turmoil to the side, Draco pulled the parchment from the page and cover Hermione had it wedged between and started to read it: Possibility of Harry dying in the first task. There wasn't a millimetre of ink-free parchment on it. Hermione had written the same five Arithmancy equations on it: four to check which dragon he would be given and one to to actually verify the probability of Potter surviving the first task.

According to her calculations, Potter only had a seventeen percent chance of making it out alive.

Draco saw the teardrops on the page before she ripped it from his hands. "You have no sense of privacy, do you?"

He kept his cool and simply raised his eyebrows at her. "You worry too much. When you did your calculations, was it before your four or five hours of sleep? Or was it after?"

Hermione stopped talking out of pure shock. "I worry too much? I just found out my best friend has to face dragons and you think I worry too much? All I can do is sit down and watch, knowing that he is allowed only his wand when he faces a XXXXX ranked beast! Not to mention he is three years behind his opponents in practical knowledge!" Hermione covered her face with both of her hands in despair before she looked at him, anger still riddling her face. "I've had him try uncomplicated, non-complex spells I found in the practice O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S. yet he struggles. He's capable, but he won't be ready in-" Hermione threw her quill down before she accidentally snapped it. "Five days."

" One of your best friends." A single corner of Draco's mouth quirked up into a smile. It was mocking, but his eyes were still warm, giving the impression that he found her to be a tad silly today. "You're spreading yourself too thin, Hermione." Draco held up a closed fist and lifted one slim finger every time he listed something on her conscience. "You have your own school work to worry about, I know you already started to work away at those practice O.W.L.S. as my father has sent me multiple packets to work on when he mentioned that you asked for them..." he gave her a playful glare and she only straightened, completely unremorseful for valuing her education. "You're still working on S.P.E.W. and freeing our house elf." Hermione's eyes widened at the mention of the house elf and he thought she might have forgotten next month's deadline with Lucius, but he would circle back to that later. "And I know you're spreading yourself too thin because you messed up on your arithmancy calculations."

Hermione blinked and sputtered before she looked down at the parchment she still held in her hands. He gently took it from her and laid it between them on the table as he pointed to the last problem – the only one that really mattered to Hermione. "You were so upset that you didn't think to check your work and only thought about what you can do to increase this percentage. If you look here," he moved the tip of his finger to the middle of her work, "you made the simple mistake of adding instead of subtracting." He was going to make the point of how she shouldn't put her complete faith into divination, even by means of mathematical equations, but the sodden look on her face quieted him.

She sat in silence for a long time, before she turned her wand to him and cast a cheering charm causing him to clutch his stomach from the uncontrolled laughter. "YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST STATED THAT! DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY, YOU ARE A MENACE!" The relief in her voice kept his laughter genuine though, knowing that she wouldn't be too frustrated with him for long. "Oh, sod off." The cheering charm gave and he was surprised that she relieved him of it so early. Hermione wasn't the most forgiving person, even if they were rough-housing.

Draco wiped his unshed tears and saw that Hermione had her eyes narrowed at something at the end of their study hall. Looking over, he saw the object of her annoyance – and the reason why she removed the cheering charm off of him: Viktor Krum.

"What? Not a fan of Krum?" She didn't respond as they watched Krum hold a hand up, palm facing them. A confused look crossed the Bulgarian's face as he looked at the hand he held up and Draco realized that he wasn't just holding up his hand: he was pressing it against an invisible wall. "You put a shield up?"

Hermione looked at him then. Her mouth was set in a way that made her look like a scolded child, especially when she ducked her chin, but she cocked an eyebrow at him. "He always has a fan club with him and while I helped him once, I'm not looking to have my most convenient study corner compromised."

Draco bit the inside of his cheek to prevent him from grinning. "And here I thought you wanted me all to yourself." He felt hopeful when Hermione averted her gaze back down to her journal, attempting to hide the colour on her cheeks. Not only was he cheerful at getting a wanted reaction from her twice , he was thrilled to know that Quidditch Stars had no effect on her – not that he would have thought she was shallow.

Krum glanced over his shoulder, a brooding expression recognizable even when viewing his side profile, and he stalked off. His unwanted, primarily female entourage trailed behind him. "The bloke's not that bad. He actually shared some pointers with me after you left last Friday. Next year, the Quidditch cup will be ours once again." Hermione made a non-committal noise, making it apparent that she really couldn't care less for the subject of conversation. Draco gave in at that point. "Let me take over S.P.E.W. for the time being."

Hermione popped her head up at that. "What? I thought you didn't want to-"

"Your undying compassion to help the less fortunate has moved me," he deadpanned. He exuded nothing but indifference as if he was providing her with a handout rather than a genuine helping hand. "I will be taking up my post as Vice President, my only stipulation is renaming-"

"No. There is nothing wrong with the acronym S.P.E.W.."

"Except it will be forgotten in history books as Spew. " She leaned forward, intent on winning this argument, but he was having too much fun seeing her ruffled. He placed the tip of his index finger over her lips as he propped his head up with his free hand. "You're adorable when you're flustered, you know."

' You know.' He had never said it before and it was a testament to how much time they spent together. It was a thought that made her heart rate quicken. However, with Draco's incessant back and forth teasing – not to mention mixed signals like these , she wondered if he was just something to toy with while he discovered what to do with his feelings. There was a reason why she was trying to maintain a space between them, no matter how much she fancied him. It was at that point that Hermione did what she felt any other Gryffindor might have done:

She bit him.

"Ow!" He pulled his hand back and whipped it in the air as if he could shake off the pain. "Buggar!"

Hermione leaned back in her seat and held the journal close to her face. She hadn't meant to bite him that hard, but she had the courtesy to try and hide her laughter from him. Still, she wasn't going to apologize when he stuck his fingers in her face. "Don't you have your own Lucius-assigned project to work on?" When she felt in control of her laughter, she peered at him over the top of her journal. He had his finger in his mouth as he glared at her and she felt herself blush at the sight of him. 'Why is he so fit?'

"I'll get you back for that, witch." He had a daring glint in his eye as he closely inspected his finger.

"Ever the drama queen." Hermione bit her lip as her eyes slid back down to her notes. She was only pretending to be reading them as she was still thinking about Draco's handsomeness. "Your father keeps asking me about you, you know. On top of the open projects you are keeping an open list on," she flipped a page of her book to let her implications sink in, "I have to write him reports on how you're faring."

"My father never cared about me before," he grumbled, causing her to glance up with a look of concern. She knew better than to press him if he didn't want to talk about Lucius but fortunately for her, he was in a talking mood. "He beat me, he tormented me - I'm to inherit the company anyway. Do I really need to work on a project I know I am to excel at? Especially when I'm set to win anyway?" He huffed and shook his head. "It's not like he'll tell me I did well and mother..." It split Hermione's heart in two to see how utterly broken Draco looked before his face became pinched. "Her lack of interference suggests she condones it." There was an edge to his voice, as if the truth was physically paining him. Perhaps it was.

Hermione nodded softly in thought. She found Lucius to be quite reasonable everywhere but Draco. The patterns of his behavior did not make sense - even when it came to his dated and supremacist views on politics, she could see how he got there although she was practically on the opposite end of the spectrum. Maybe he cared too much about his only son but then again, maybe he cared too little. She perceived that he might have possibly been improving his ways with Draco, but she couldn't forget that Lucius was Draco's abuser.

"Don't tell Harry and Ron," she leveled his gaze with a confident look of her own. "But I reckon a little rebellion is good from time to time. If you're serious about S.P.E.W..." she removed her notes, findings, and data she had collected. "This is what I have. The next thing on my 'to-do' list is to interview some of the house elves."

Once her words sunk in he gave her a soft half-smile. "Easy enough." He took the stack of parchment and used his thumb to flip through the pages. It would take him days to rifle through her miniscule writing, but he would do it. "I was thinking if this is successful enough, we could talk to some of the Hogsmeade villagers about joining."

Hermione's eyes brightened at that and he tried to commit every inch of excitement on her face to memory. "Really? Oh, that would be wonderful! Of course that would only be the first step in having members outside of the student body."

"Of course," he agreed, grey eyes twinkling with amusement. Mustering up his courage, he tried to take the plunge. "Hermione, I-"

" Hermione, where are you? "

Draco and Hermione's heads both whirled around to look at the entrance where Harry stood, squinting into what he perceived to be an empty aisle. She lifted her wand, but Draco reached for her wrist. "Don't, just let him piss off."

"No, he might have found something-"

"He doesn't even have parchment with him, I doubt he found anything."

"He knows we're here, Draco." Hermione looked over at her friend who was wearing the bare minimum of his Hogwarts uniform. It was what he usually wore, even on the weekends because the clothes the Dursleys gave him didn't fit him.

"I know you're in there with Malfoy!" Harry hissed again. He glanced around as a couple of Ravenclaws passed, both giving him weird looks for whispering at a deserted aisle.

Hermione gave Draco a look that said I told you so before she took down the shield and muffliato . Harry blinked a couple times at seeing his best friend and his sworn enemy come into view. She gave him a short wave, but he turned a pointed look on Draco.

Draco had relaxed into the chair he occupied completely and looked as if he had a bored expression. "Couldn't find anything useful on your own, Potter?"

Harry ground his teeth, but looked at Hermione. "I need you to teach me about summoning charms."

"Summoning-" Draco stopped when he felt Hermione put a hand on his arm. The expression she had on her face had him roll his eyes and gather his things before he stood. He didn't look at Harry or Hermione as he strode off, although he did consider knocking into Harry's shoulder before thinking better of it.

Hermione was slightly frustrated with Harry for interrupting whatever Draco was about to say but then she reminded herself that he approached her regarding the trial, something that was bound to be much more important.

"We went over summoning charms already, Harry."

'Going over' summoning charms was an understatement. They had dedicated an entire day and a half to them as she thought that if they told Harry that he specifically could not bring anything else in the first task, then it would help him if he was able to summon an aide should he need it. Hermione had even tried to teach him the theory on it to see if it would help information stick but the bottom line was that Harry wasn't trying hard enough. Not in the arrogant, self-absorbed way, but in the he-was-too-frightened-and-missing-Ron-way-too-much-to-focus-on-his-intent way.

"Yes, but I just finished talking to Professor Moody and-"

"Professor Moody?"

"Yes. About six-two, this wide and has a limp? Not to mention a magic blue eye? Can't miss him." Harry took what was formerly Draco's seat as he spoke and she couldn't help but smile at how blithe he appeared. She reasoned that she could easily put aside her hesitant feelings with the veteran professor if he had the ability to pull Harry out of his slump. "He told me to use what I am good at. I'm good at flying and I'm going against dragons, right?"

The smile slid off of her face. "Presumably one dragon, but yes." She sat up, understanding where Harry was coming from. "So you want a broom."

Harry nodded and she was concerned she might need to repair his glasses again if he was any more enthusiastic. "I need a broom." She could pinpoint the moment where he remembered his luck the last time they tried summoning charms. His expression sobered and his voice shook in the way it only did with Harry. "I need to be able to summon my broom to wherever the dragons will be, from the castle and I need to master it in five days."

"That's more than enough time." Hermione already had her wand in the air to show him the appropriate motion once more. As she started to coach him again on what to do, she was grateful that her hands never shook.

It frightened her to think that she may have just told him a lie to placate him.

A/N: Ahh, I am so excited! The next chapter (possibly two? Not sure yet) will be the first trial! I am so excited. I really want to thank you all for being so patient and so kind. It's been rough. Mom just had two surgeries and a couple weeks ago I had been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

I hope you are all doing okay, though. Did you all have a good valentine's day? Are you getting vaccinated?