p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione groaned as she rolled over. She was suddenly aware of an acute, stabbing pain, shooting from her left shoulder blade to just behind behind her eye. The more conscious she became, the more aches and pains made themselves known to her. Nothing as serious, and definitely nothing life threatening, but a good bit more uncomfortable than she remembered having ever felt./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Easy there. Take your time, Granger…" Draco's face swam into focus, dirty, bruised, and filled with concern. She rubbed her eyes a bit, and sat up as she looked around. She was sitting on a small bed, in what appeared to be a log cabin. There wasn't much there. Just the bed she was laying in, shoved into the corner of the room, a night stand beside it, and a wash basin in the opposing corner. Draco sat in a simple wooden chair beside the bed. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Draco… where are we?" She asked painfully. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""I haven't the foggiest. I woke up in a room identical to this one on the other side of the kitchen and family room. I don't know where our wands are, and there's no way to bust out. I've already checked. There are bars on every window, and the doors leading out seem to be reinforced somehow. They were nice enough to give us a full refrigerator, so we have quite a bit to eat," he finished, looking rather irate. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione didn't reply as she processed all of the new information. She strained to remember what had happened before blacking out. She suddenly sat up straighter. "Draco… you're part Veela?"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco rubbed his hands together uncomfortably while chuckling bitterly. "Yes. The great 'pureblood' Malfoy line. Did you know that there is an old, dark, blood magic on my family bloodline? It's hardly a shock." His mouth pressed into a thin line. "Malfoys only conceive sons. The great Armand Malfoy fell to the magic of a Veela. As the story is told by our family, she also could not resist the Malfoy charm. It is supposedly some great love story. Their son, Nicholas Malfoy, was the first to be born with this ridiculous platinum hair. The Veela magic remains in our veins, dormant. It will never reveal itself in the Malfoy line as anything more than our trademark hair color, because no Malfoy will have a daughter. On the plus side, it also makes us immune to their magic. If you hadn't noticed, I was the only male at Hogwarts that wasn't falling all over himself like a fool, over that silver haired ninny, Fleur Delacour." He sneered. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione shook her head disapprovingly. "Fleur Delacour is Fleur Weasley now, as you must be aware. She's married to Bill." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco deadpanned. "She is part Veela female. He is a fool." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione stood to stretch and explore the rest of the house. She was about done with this conversation. She underestimated just how sore she would be. Her knees buckled as soon as she put her full weight on them. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco wrapped his arms around her waist as he caught her. "You really should lie back down," he scolded./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione stood stubbornly, grimacing. "I need water and dittany. I assume they took my pack as well?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Actually… no." Draco's brow furrowed. "They took our wands, but our packs with our clothes, books, and knives are all still there." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione walked out of her bedroom and into the common area, across with lay a door to another room. There was a small, sad, orange volute sofa and an even older television set sitting opposite, to her left. A rough, hand made wooden coffee table sat between the two, her pack sitting atop it. To her right, lay the kitchen, which contained an old porcelain sink, a gas range, a short counter top with a knife block on it and nothing more, and several floating cabinets, all against the far right wall. The aforementioned refrigerator occupied the far corner. Between the living area and the kitchen, sat a squarish (also seemingly handmade) wooden table, and three chairs. Hermione recognized the set, and realized that the fourth chair was in her room, where Draco had left it. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"She walked around to the coffee table, and pulled out a lone vial of essence of dittany from her bag. "Do you need any?" She offered. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco shook his head and waved her off. He walked over to the kitchen and plopped himself down at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. "I don't understand why we are being kept here. And by whom?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione put a drop of the bitter essence on her tongue, and shuddered. She walked over to join Draco. "I'm not sure either." She sat on the chair next to him. "We don't have much choice but to wait, so why don't we pull out our books and continue our research? At least then we'll be productive." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco glared at her. "We are currently imprisoned in a log cabin, by Merlin knows who, and you want to do research?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione grinned sheepishly. She was feeling leagues better, now that the dittany had gone to work in her body. "What else are we going to do?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The coldness that Hermione remembered from their school years descended over him. "I will be in my room, trying to figure out how the emhell/em we are getting out of here. Not emstudying/em." Draco stood abruptly, and stormed off to his room./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione placed both of her palms flat on the table, and rallied herself. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry," she whispered to herself, as she closed her eyes. She willed the tears she could feel forming, to get sucked back into her head. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Once she had composed herself, Hermione stood, and retrieved her pack from the living area. She reached in and started pulling out book after book. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A few hours later, Draco emerged from his room, looking particularly morose. He came, and sat gently beside her at the kitchen table. They sat in silence for awhile. He took the time to study her face. She certainly wasn't going to speak first. After all, in her mind, he was the one who had started behaving like a jerk for no apparent reason. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco reached out and put his hand on hers, stopping her mid-scribble. She stopped, inhaled sharply, and looked at him. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what comes over me sometimes. I'm incredibly stressed out, and I didn't mean to take it out on you. You didn't deserve that," he apologized./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione's stoic face immediately broke into a smile. "All is forgiven! Now help me with this," she said, sliding her notes and the text in front of her over to him. They suddenly heard the bolts on the front door being opened. Draco stood and froze. Hermione jumped up and ran to the knife block on the counter. She grabbed the two largest knives, handed one to Draco, and stood in front of him. He took the knife awkwardly, and copied her stance, clearly uncomfortable. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The door swung wide open, and a woman entered, flanked closely by two men. The woman was small in stature, but athletic. Not in the way that female Aurors are athletic, but rather in the way that made it clear that she did hard labor every day. She had an olive coloring to her complexion, and almond shaped eyes, with a warm brown color. Her lips were full, and her eyebrows had a natural, elegant arch to them. She was wearing a form fitting black tank top, distressed, dark blue jeans, and tall brown hiking boots. The man behind her right shoulder was nearly as short as she was. He was clearly oriental, and emextremely/em muscular. He had a broad back and shoulders, and each of his arms looked larger than Hermione's thigh. He wore a light grey v-neck t-shirt, and loose fitting khaki pants. The way he moved exuded power and control. The other man was at least two heads taller, dirty blonde, with striking blue eyes. He had a fairly wide frame, but unlike the Asian man's, his was not nearly as filled out. He carried strength as well, but in a more subtle manner./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The woman spoke first. "Hello. I am Silena. This is Ryder," she said, jerking her head towards the shorter of the two men behind her. "And this is Kai." She pointed her thumb backwards, at the tall blonde. She suddenly seemed to notice the knives, and laughed. "You can put those away." She pulled their wands out of her back pocket, and tossed them at Hermione. "We know who you are, and why you're here. I'm sorry, but we cannot help you." She turned to leave, ushering the other two out. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione, stunned, had failed to catch either of the wands. They'd bounced out of her hand, and scattered themselves on the floor. Draco shook his head, knelt to retrieve them, and gently tucked Hermione's in her back pocket as he stood. "Who are you people?"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Silena stopped at the doorway, and looked back over her shoulder. "We are the wolves of the Oasis pack." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Easy there. Take your time, Granger…" Draco's face swam into focus, dirty, bruised, and filled with concern. She rubbed her eyes a bit, and sat up as she looked around. She was sitting on a small bed, in what appeared to be a log cabin. There wasn't much there. Just the bed she was laying in, shoved into the corner of the room, a night stand beside it, and a wash basin in the opposing corner. Draco sat in a simple wooden chair beside the bed. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Draco… where are we?" She asked painfully. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""I haven't the foggiest. I woke up in a room identical to this one on the other side of the kitchen and family room. I don't know where our wands are, and there's no way to bust out. I've already checked. There are bars on every window, and the doors leading out seem to be reinforced somehow. They were nice enough to give us a full refrigerator, so we have quite a bit to eat," he finished, looking rather irate. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione didn't reply as she processed all of the new information. She strained to remember what had happened before blacking out. She suddenly sat up straighter. "Draco… you're part Veela?"/p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco rubbed his hands together uncomfortably while chuckling bitterly. "Yes. The great 'pureblood' Malfoy line. Did you know that there is an old, dark, blood magic on my family bloodline? It's hardly a shock." His mouth pressed into a thin line. "Malfoys only conceive sons. The great Armand Malfoy fell to the magic of a Veela. As the story is told by our family, she also could not resist the Malfoy charm. It is supposedly some great love story. Their son, Nicholas Malfoy, was the first to be born with this ridiculous platinum hair. The Veela magic remains in our veins, dormant. It will never reveal itself in the Malfoy line as anything more than our trademark hair color, because no Malfoy will have a daughter. On the plus side, it also makes us immune to their magic. If you hadn't noticed, I was the only male at Hogwarts that wasn't falling all over himself like a fool, over that silver haired ninny, Fleur Delacour." He sneered. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione shook her head disapprovingly. "Fleur Delacour is Fleur Weasley now, as you must be aware. She's married to Bill." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco deadpanned. "She is part Veela female. He is a fool." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione stood to stretch and explore the rest of the house. She was about done with this conversation. She underestimated just how sore she would be. Her knees buckled as soon as she put her full weight on them. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco wrapped his arms around her waist as he caught her. "You really should lie back down," he scolded./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione stood stubbornly, grimacing. "I need water and dittany. I assume they took my pack as well?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';""Actually… no." Draco's brow furrowed. "They took our wands, but our packs with our clothes, books, and knives are all still there." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione walked out of her bedroom and into the common area, across with lay a door to another room. There was a small, sad, orange volute sofa and an even older television set sitting opposite, to her left. A rough, hand made wooden coffee table sat between the two, her pack sitting atop it. To her right, lay the kitchen, which contained an old porcelain sink, a gas range, a short counter top with a knife block on it and nothing more, and several floating cabinets, all against the far right wall. The aforementioned refrigerator occupied the far corner. Between the living area and the kitchen, sat a squarish (also seemingly handmade) wooden table, and three chairs. Hermione recognized the set, and realized that the fourth chair was in her room, where Draco had left it. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"She walked around to the coffee table, and pulled out a lone vial of essence of dittany from her bag. "Do you need any?" She offered. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco shook his head and waved her off. He walked over to the kitchen and plopped himself down at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. "I don't understand why we are being kept here. And by whom?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione put a drop of the bitter essence on her tongue, and shuddered. She walked over to join Draco. "I'm not sure either." She sat on the chair next to him. "We don't have much choice but to wait, so why don't we pull out our books and continue our research? At least then we'll be productive." /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco glared at her. "We are currently imprisoned in a log cabin, by Merlin knows who, and you want to do research?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione grinned sheepishly. She was feeling leagues better, now that the dittany had gone to work in her body. "What else are we going to do?" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The coldness that Hermione remembered from their school years descended over him. "I will be in my room, trying to figure out how the emhell/em we are getting out of here. Not emstudying/em." Draco stood abruptly, and stormed off to his room./p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione placed both of her palms flat on the table, and rallied herself. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry," she whispered to herself, as she closed her eyes. She willed the tears she could feel forming, to get sucked back into her head. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Once she had composed herself, Hermione stood, and retrieved her pack from the living area. She reached in and started pulling out book after book. /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; min-height: 12px;" /p
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"A few hours later, Draco emerged from his room, looking particularly morose. He came, and sat gently beside her at the kitchen table. They sat in silence for awhile. He took the time to study her face. She certainly wasn't going to speak first. After all, in her mind, he was the one who had started behaving like a jerk for no apparent reason. /p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Draco reached out and put his hand on hers, stopping her mid-scribble. She stopped, inhaled sharply, and looked at him. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what comes over me sometimes. I'm incredibly stressed out, and I didn't mean to take it out on you. You didn't deserve that," he apologized./p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione's stoic face immediately broke into a smile. "All is forgiven! Now help me with this," she said, sliding her notes and the text in front of her over to him. They suddenly heard the bolts on the front door being opened. Draco stood and froze. Hermione jumped up and ran to the knife block on the counter. She grabbed the two largest knives, handed one to Draco, and stood in front of him. He took the knife awkwardly, and copied her stance, clearly uncomfortable. /p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The door swung wide open, and a woman entered, flanked closely by two men. The woman was small in stature, but athletic. Not in the way that female Aurors are athletic, but rather in the way that made it clear that she did hard labor every day. She had an olive coloring to her complexion, and almond shaped eyes, with a warm brown color. Her lips were full, and her eyebrows had a natural, elegant arch to them. She was wearing a form fitting black tank top, distressed, dark blue jeans, and tall brown hiking boots. The man behind her right shoulder was nearly as short as she was. He was clearly oriental, and emextremely/em muscular. He had a broad back and shoulders, and each of his arms looked larger than Hermione's thigh. He wore a light grey v-neck t-shirt, and loose fitting khaki pants. The way he moved exuded power and control. The other man was at least two heads taller, dirty blonde, with striking blue eyes. He had a fairly wide frame, but unlike the Asian man's, his was not nearly as filled out. He carried strength as well, but in a more subtle manner./p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"The woman spoke first. "Hello. I am Silena. This is Ryder," she said, jerking her head towards the shorter of the two men behind her. "And this is Kai." She pointed her thumb backwards, at the tall blonde. She suddenly seemed to notice the knives, and laughed. "You can put those away." She pulled their wands out of her back pocket, and tossed them at Hermione. "We know who you are, and why you're here. I'm sorry, but we cannot help you." She turned to leave, ushering the other two out. /p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Hermione, stunned, had failed to catch either of the wands. They'd bounced out of her hand, and scattered themselves on the floor. Draco shook his head, knelt to retrieve them, and gently tucked Hermione's in her back pocket as he stood. "Who are you people?"/p
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p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"Silena stopped at the doorway, and looked back over her shoulder. "We are the wolves of the Oasis pack." /p
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