a/n: Happy mother's day to all the mothers out there! Also, thank you for your kind messages and the review. I really enjoy reading from you guys!

Day 2 since Greengrass's arrival

Hermione had not insisted on sleeping on the sofa, but Greengrass had given her no choice. Nott and Zabini had slept on the floor. The door to the dark room had remained closed and no one had entered since Greengrass chased Hermione out of there.

Greengrass and Hermione had climbed upstairs through the trapdoor between the sofa and the table in the morning. Greengrass had forbidden Nott and Zabini to come. Upstairs, it was completely different from what Hermione had imagined. The air was fresh, and it was unusually noisy, for there were no humans or animals in their vicinity except for Greengrass. And what she saw was different from what she expected. She wasn't standing on a green meadow or in the middle of London. She was in a ruin. It had to be a burned-out manor because Hermione could still see some coy furniture and wallpapers. The house had once been very nice. The roof had completely fallen, and the beams were distributed around the trapdoor, which was probably in the former salon. A chandelier was not far away.

Hermione hadn't asked Greengrass where they were. Hermione had said very little in general. Nothing, if she remembered correctly. Greengrass had instructed her to wash herself and then had given her a bucket, which she had filled magically with water. She also did her business behind one of the trees not far from the ruins. Greengrass had not let her out of sight and had her wand always ready to attack. Hermione had not even tried to escape.

Hermione was clean and felt a lot lighter, better. Now she was sitting on the sofa and Greengrass was braiding Hermine's long hair. It had grown almost to her waist and was curler than ever.

"Your ends should be cut," said Greengrass, pulling a hairband from her wrist and tightening Hermione's braid. "They're dry and broken." Hermione did not answer. She never answered and it didn't seem to bother Greengrass much. "Do we have scissors?"

"Under the board behind the sofa," said Zabini.

"Damn it, Blaise! I don't want the mudblood to know that!" Nott scolded.

"I already knew," Hermione said roughly. Nott looked at her in surprise and seemed confused.

"How?"

"I saw you take the things out of it to help Zabini with his arm."

"It looks weird, doesn't it?" Greengrass asked Hermione, and the latter nodded slightly. "Really disgusting the way you see the meat. If I'd known Blaise was so bad, I'd have taken dittany with me. But I guess I can't go back now, because those two idiots won't let me go any further than to the trees. Ridiculous."

"It's not that disgusting anymore. Granger saw it when it was fresh," said Zabini and then looked at the bandage he was wearing since yesterday. Greengrass made him wear it.

Hermine was impressed by Greengrass's influence on Nott and Zabini. The two boys had respect for her, even Nott. He made them a salad out of the few vegetables he had been able to steal from the market and didn't just cut the tomatoes lovelessly. Greengrass had told him to make a salad. She had also told him not to call Hermione mudblood anymore, because that was stupid and childish and very inappropriate in his situation. Nott tried, but the insult slipped out of his mouth again and again.

"Well, I think it's disgusting, and you better take care of the wound. Besides, you should let me out, Theo. I'm not missing yet. I can be something of a spy, you know ...," Greengrass said, then stepped up behind Hermione. "Get up, I have to push the sofa aside." She did it with magic and then crawled behind the sofa and picked up the board.

"No. Definitely not. You know how dangerous it is for all traitors," Nott said sternly.

"I'm not a traitor yet," Greengrass said.

"What are you then, Daphne? What?" Nott shouted angrily. "You're with us now, damn it, and you wanted to be with us until a few hours ago. Now what? Back! You want to go back? Fuck, Daphne, you can't go back."

"I don't want to go back!" Greengrass had stood up behind the sofa, scissors in her hand. "You're such a fucking idiot, Theo. You're so incredibly stupid. I want to help you. Let me go outside. I can buy things, I have gold. I can talk to people."

"What if they find out?" Nott asked. "What the hell are you going to do then? Let them kill you? Torture? I'm not going to fucking let that happen."

"Could you perhaps stop screaming?" Zabini asked Nott, but he didn't pay any attention to him.

"How are they supposed to find out?" Greengrass shouted. Then she sat down behind Hermione on the sofa and furiously cut off the strands at the end of her braid. Many small hairs fell on the dirty green fabric and shone brown-gold.

"Shit, I don't know, Daphne. Most Death Eaters are stupid, but not all of them," Nott grumbled.

"Thank you for the low volume." But Blaise still didn't receive any attention.

"And you think I'm so stupid and I'm going to be exposed. That's it, Theo?" Greengrass hissed and then held the braid in front of Hermione's face. "Good? Or more? Then I would have to open the braid again."

"No, perfect," Hermione whispered. She followed the conversation between Greengrass and Nott with suspense.

"Salazar, I don't think you're stupid," Nott said angry. "Daphne..."

"No! No Daphne. Daphne goes out tonight and at least takes a walk through the woods around the house, because Daphne is annoyed by you, Theo," Greengrass hissed.

"Just the woods," Nott said, looking at Greengrass waiting. After a few seconds, Greengrass nodded, seemed to think a little and then got up from the sofa. The hair strands magically disappeared. "Granger is coming with me. She needs more fresh air. Going out to do her business and so on." Nott hesitantly nodded. He had lost, he knew it.

Hermione was glad to have Greengrass. After all, the former Slytherin seemed to have some sense and did not behave as inhumanly as Nott. But Hermione had already been happy about Zabini, because then the torture had stopped. Did Greengrass know Nott tortured her? No, of course not. Nott would never voluntarily tell her about it, he wasn't that stupid. And until Greengrass asked about the time before Zabini's arrival, no one would tell her anything. Not even Hermione. Why would she? They weren't friends just because Greengrass treated her like a human. Hermione didn't like her and hoped she wouldn't become dependent on her. Because Greengrass was dangerous and dependence was even more dangerous.

So, Hermione sat on the sofa and didn't really know what to do. Since she came out of the dark room, she had not done any exercises and she felt bad about it. She needed her sit-ups, it distracted her. But in front of Nott and Zabini she did not want to move. She felt a lot more uncomfortable than in the dark room, but she knew she was now one step closer to freedom. She should plan her escape.

If she went outside with Greengrass, her chances of escape would be the highest. Unfortunately, Hermione couldn't assess how well Greengrass was with her wand. But she was able to use a stunning spell with certainty and she had certainly learned how to stun a running target from her Death Eater friends.

But Hermione had one advantage: The trees. She would be able to run in slalom and hide behind the big tribes to avoid Greengrass's spells. Unfortunately, she didn't know how fast she could run. She had hardly walked in the past few months, had only done sit-ups and was, let's face it, weak. She was sure she wouldn't be able to run away from Greengrass.

But Hermione was a Gryffindor. She had courage and the urge to try the impossible.

"When do you want to go out?" asked Nott.

"Oh, I don't know. Just before sunset", said Greengrass. "In two, three hours."

"Before the sun goes down, you'll be back", said Nott, trying to sound strict. "And Granger, too."

"I won't let her out of my sight", said Greengrass.

"I hope so", Nott snarled and Greengrass stared at him annoyed. Meanwhile, Zabini had sat down on the only still normal looking chair and nibbled on a cracker. When he noticed Hermine's gaze, he threw the package to her, and Hermine silently grabbed cracker. The crackers were not tasty, almost tasteless, but it was good against hunger. Hermione was hardly hungry anymore (the feeling of hunger was not felt due to the few and missing meals in the last few months), but the desire to have something to chew came to her more often.

Hermione spent the next hour listening to Zabini and Nott as they planned their next shopping tour. Zabini had not been at the market since the accident with his arm and had not otherwise met any people. Hermione learned that he was seen as a traitor, just like Nott.

Greengrass was sitting next to Hermione on the sofa all the time and seemed to be immersed in a book. Hermione noticed, however, the gazes Greengrass repeatedly cast over the top of the book towards Nott and Zabini.

Hermione found that the conversations were much more interesting than the ones she had overheard from the dark room. Greengrass provided more talk and talked about her recent visits to Malfoy Manor. Hermione found this particularly interesting. So, when Greengrass put her book aside, Hermione listened quietly.

"I saw him almost two months ago", said Greengrass, when Zabini mentioned an old classmate, Miles Bletchley. "He was at the Manor with his father, barely talked and... well, he didn't seem happy. As far as I know, he shouldn't get the mark."

"Nobody gets the mark that young", said Zabini, but then he seemed to remember and swallowed so loudly that Hermione could hear it well in the silence that had arisen. "Well, normally."

"Yes, Draco is probably the youngest official fucking Death Eater in history", Nott said dryly. "But good for Miles … that he doesn't get the damn mark."

"As far as I know ...", said Greengrass, then squeezing her lips into a thin line. "But who knows what the Dark Lord is planning next. He's unpredictable."

"I never thought Miles would show up at the Manor," Zabini remarked. "I mean, that's Miles, I hate dark magic Miles we're talking about here." He ran his hand over his shaved hair and shook his head in disbelief."

"It's his father, Blaise," Greengrass said and her voice was a little softer than usual.

"Oh, shut the fuck up. It wasn't just his father. Blaise has already made the same apology for Pansy. Miles is not a fucking lap dog who follows his father everywhere. He fucking believes it himself," Nott snorted loudly.

"Theo!" Greengrass shouted angrily. "How can you say such a thing! Just because we can't all be as great as you, doesn't mean we're supporting the Dark Lord. Blaise and I weren't here from the start, but now we are."

"You're different!" Nott shouted angrily.

"We are no fucking different!" Greengrass said and braided her teeth. "I walked in and out of the Manor for months, watched Charity Burbage get murdered and didn't even blink an eye. Yes, Theo, maybe I never really believed in the superiority of the pure blood, and yet I was there, with the Dark Lord, and did nothing. "

"Because you couldn't do anything!"

"And Miles can't either!" Greengrass shouted furious. "Not everyone can drug their father and then burn the house down!"

Hermione could see from Greengrass's facial expression that she was shocked by her own words. So was Hermione. She didn't know her muggle studies teacher was murdered, but it wasn't surprising.

"Daphne ...," Zabini said quietly.

Nott stared silently at Greengrass for several seconds, wriggled his forehead and seemed to chew on the inside of his lower lip. And although he seemed almost calm, Hermione knew he was burning on the inside. She was sure he was just putting up insults, planning his next outburst.

But the outburst of anger did not come. Nott silently told Zabini to get up from the chair and then put the chair under the trap door. He didn't say anything when he got out of the bunker and closed the trap door behind him. With Nott, the tense atmosphere left the room and Hermione was almost relieved to breathe out loudly, but then she remembered the presence of Zabini and Greengrass.

"Daphne ...," Zabini began again.

"No, Blaise, not now," said Greengrass tiredly. "Granger, get up. We're going outside."

Hermione got up from the sofa and climbed through the trap door behind Greengrass into the burnt-out salon. Now she could figure out where they were. The manor must have been Nott Manor, which Nott himself had probably burned down. Hermione didn't know about it. She had thought that she had learned a lot about Nott over time, but Nott had never told her anything about it.

Unfortunately, she had been so immersed in the conversations of the former Slytherins in the last few hours that she had not thought about an escape plan. Hermione would probably use this walk to familiarize herself with the surroundings and to find possible hiding places behind trees, rocks and other things that would protect her from spells.

It was a little warmer than this morning, at least that's how it felt to Hermione. The sun was still clearly above the horizon, casting warm rays through the trees on the ruins where Greengrass and her stood. Nott was nowhere to be seen, probably he disapparated.

Greengrass stomped over the charred beams and Hermione ran after her. They walked towards the woods. The leaves were green, and Hermione tried to see from them what kind of trees they were in this forest. Beech trees. There were many beech trees in England. The trees were close together, which would be an advantage for Hermione's escape. The many tribes would offer her some protection.

"I didn't want to say it when you were there. I'm sure Theo didn't want you to know about it." At first Hermione didn't know what Greengrass was talking about, but then she understood. But she didn't say anything. "You must have a lot of questions. I'll answer them all if you want. Now you already know too much anyways." Greengrass was right, Hermione had a lot of questions. But she didn't know if she wanted to ask them or if could at all.

She wanted to know if Nott's father had died in that house. She wanted to know why Nott had set the house on fire and drugged his father. She wanted to know if Nott was a murderer. But she couldn't ask Greengrass. Surprisingly, the brunette brought up the subject herself.

"The fire and death of Aurelius Nott are the reason for the ousting of Theo from Malfoy Manor and the Dark Circles," Greengrass began. "It was obvious that Nott was to blame for the fire, I mean, he admitted it. While Nott Manor was still on fire, he came to Malfoy Manor, soaking in sweat and with a creepy, crazy glow in his eyes. Blaise, Draco, and I were sitting in the tearoom at the time and we were ... I don't remember, playing cards or something and Nott came running in and screaming 'I killed him, I finally killed him'. We were all shocked, didn't know what to say. We knew who Theo was talking about. He hated his father and everything he stood for; you need to know. Me and Blaise and Draco never took Theo's jokes about his father's murder seriously back then. How stupid we were."

Then it was quiet for a few seconds. Greengrass seemed to be lost in her thoughts and Hermione imagined her, Zabini and Malfoy sitting at a table playing cards. She almost found it amusing.

"Well, Theo then had a small seizure and ran around the room, laughing. I was afraid of him; it was really scary. Eventually Draco had gotten him to the ground and held his arms so that he couldn't beat around him anymore, but the laughter didn't stop. It was bad, Granger." Greengrass's gaze was rigidly straight ahead as she walked between the trees beside Hermione. "Blaise tried to keep him from screaming and laughing so that none of the adults would see Theo's act, but Narcissa, Draco's mother, came in with a tray of cookies. Then Theo started crying while telling Narcissa about the murder. We tried to stop him, but he just wouldn't stop talking."

Hermine's gaze wandered from tree to tree, studying every trunk and leaf as she listened intently to Greengrass. What she heard was very much in line with Nott, whom she had met in the first few weeks in the dark room.

"He told Narcissa about the faint poison he had mixed in his father's whiskey and how he put him in his bed and covered him up. Theo said he had lit the bed and then distributed gasoline, which he had found at some muggle gas station or something, all over the house. That's why everything burned so fast. When Narcissa and Bellatrix arrived at Nott Manor, it was already in flames. Of course, they tried to put out the fire, but it was too late. They found Aurelius' remains and buried them somewhere; where - I don't know."

And yet Zabini and Greengrass were still friends with Nott. Hermione wondered if they had killed people before and therefore didn't find Nott's act so bad. But it was Nott's father. Hermione couldn't imagine killing her parents, ever. At the thought of her parents, she swallowed and closed her eyes for a moment to avoid a panic attack. Because she often got one when she thought about her parents.

"We were supposed to watch Theo while Narcissa and Bellatrix were gone. Narcissa told us not to tell anyone about this. So, Draco kept pushing Theo on the ground, but somehow, he got out. Then he ran out of the manor. We hadn't seen him for over a day. Then there was the battle in the Ministry and some Death Eaters claimed to have seen him there. I guess that was the day he picked you up, Granger. The next two days he showed up near the manor. Of course, the Dark Lord had learned what Theo had done. I'm guessing Narcissa and Bellatrix told him about it. Fenrir Greyback was hired to... take down Theo. Theo escaped, but Greyback said he had bit him hard and he would probably bleed to death."

Hermione remembered how Notts arm had bled when he brought her food for the first time. Did he have any other wounds? Hermione didn't know. He must have gotten help from a healer, otherwise scars would still be visible and in the worst-case scenario Nott could have been passed on the characteristics of a werewolf.

"We were very worried when Theo didn't show up anymore. When I first saw him at the market, I was incredibly relieved. Theo told me he found someone to help him with his wounds. He wouldn't tell me who it was. Understandable, after all, he was afraid I'd betray him. I still walked in and out of Malfoy Manor. This only changed when Pansy – that treacherous snake – told Narcissa about Theo, whom she had seen on the street. I knew I had to choose a side. Blaise knew it as well, only he was quicker in his decision, smarter."

Hermine glanced at Greengrass for a moment, then she looked at the surroundings again. The ground was solid and covered with only a few branches. The roots of the trees were hardly visible; Hermione wouldn't stumble here if she ran.

"Blaise saw the evil long before I saw it. I have great respect for him leaving so early and giving up his rather comfortable life. It was only the murder of Lucius that really opened my eyes," Greengrass said and then stopped for a second. "Then I tried to find Theo. Or Blaise, but I'd heard Rudolphus had been hanging on to him when he saw him in the market. I didn't know if he was still alive. Rudolphus had said that he had most likely lost body parts while apparating with Rudolphus on his arm."

They circled a tree and then walked back to the ruin. Hermione didn't want to go back yet, but she didn't say anything and walked silent next to Greengrass. What she heard was supposed to shock her, but it didn't surprise her that much. Well, that Nott had killed his father, she had not expected, but what was going on in Malfoy Manor had already been known at the time of Dumbledore's death a week before the battle in the Ministry.

"Well, that was pretty much everything. Any questions?" asked Greengrass suddenly much more cheerfully than she had been during the storytelling.

"So, Nott killed his father?" Hermione asked much faster and louder than she had anticipated. She didn't want to ask Greengrass about it, but there were so many things burning inside her head that she had to get rid of.

"Well," Greengrass said hesitantly. "Yes, but ..." Then she didn't seem to know what to say. "You don't know Aurelius, Granger. You don't know the relationship between him and Theo. He must have been really cruel to his son and we stupid children didn't take Theo's cries for help seriously. We also murdered Aurelius."

"Nott drugged him and set him on fire," Hermione said dryly. Suddenly she felt anger about Nott being the good one, even though he had murdered. Nott was the evil one here; he had kidnapped and tortured her.

"Yes, Granger," Greengrass said. They were already halfway to the ruins. The rest of the way they did not speak to each other and both hung on to their thoughts. Greengrass seemed to be mentally in Malfoy Manor, Hermione tried to understand Nott. But she couldn't. Which side was Nott on? What were his intentions? Nott was a murderer.

Back in the bunker, they found that Nott was not back. Hermine wasn't expecting it anyways, and Greengrass made no comment. Zabini had an old card game on the table and played with himself, while a broken spoon magically stirred in a cup of tea.

"Why didn't you put any expansion spells on the bunker?" Hermine asked quite suddenly. Zabini looked up in surprise and looked at her in confusion. Then he seemed to have understood her question and licked his tongue over the dry lips.

"Don't you find it comfortable enough here, Granger?" he asked, a little derogatory. "The truth is that it's pretty easy to locate expansion spells. As the smartest witch of the century, you should know that. So, was that just a test question?" With a bitter grin, Zabini looked up to Hermione, who stood next to the sofa and looked at his cards.

"Sure," Hermione said, then sat down on the sofa.

"Then I probably passed the test," Zabini said and devoted himself back to his cards.

"I told Granger about Theo's father," Greengrass said bluntly, and then she dropped on the sofa. She stroked the pillowcases and leaned back. So they had slept the last few nights; half-seated and close to each other because the sofa was not very wide.

"Theo won't like that."

"I know," Greengrass said. "Tomorrow I'll go out. We need bread and, best of all, vegetables. I can get gold from Gringotts and I have to stop at home before I'm reported missing."

"Do you have an excuse for your disappearance?" asked Zabini. Greengrass shrugged.

"You know my mum won't really care where I was, and Astoria and father probably think I was with Pansy, Draco or Miles. Or Tracey."

"Okay"