This is a non-canon story. Different couples, different situations, etc. I am changing a lot from the book and doing it my own way. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. If you do like it, then please, leave me some reviews because I love reading about what people think of my stories.

Disclaimer – I own nothing except my own ideas. Everything else belongs to Rowling.

Chapter 9

The fifth year of Hogwarts for Hermione started off with a bang. Their new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher was a ridiculous joke to her, Harry was barely speaking to either her or Ron, it was harder than usual to find time with Draco, and to top it off she felt as if things were just going to get worse. Her biggest concern was Draco and Harry. She needed to talk to Draco first, because at the moment, it seemed as if there was no hope for Harry.

The rest of summer had been a difficult pill for her to swallow. Draco's letters went from daily to weekly to...non existent. She had buried her worries in the back of her mind because her attention needed to be on Harry then. He had his trial coming up and she had been determined to save his wand. Luckily for them, Dumbledore had appeared at Harry's trial and saved him.

Once Harry was officially reinstated into Hogwarts, her mind opened up and accepted her worries for Draco. She had decided to not write to him until he had written first, in case something was amiss and her letter fell into the wrong hands. She didn't want to make things worse for him.

Thinking that Harry would return to normal after the trial was a dead wish. In fact, he had only gotten worse. He was keeping to himself more, and snapping at her and Ron whenever they said anything. But she didn't let it faze her at all. She kept hope that Harry just needed space and time to himself.

Her focus turned to Draco once more. Seeing him at the welcoming feast had been difficult for her. He looked cold, dark, uncaring and very very distant. He refused to even make eye contact with her. She had sent him letters, but none of them were replied. She was becoming more and more concerned as the days progressed. She didn't know what else to do, because she was pretty sure storming into the Slytherin dungeons would surely end her life.

A month had already passed since the new year began, and nothing had changed. Harry was still being evasive, Draco was still ignoring her, and Professor Umbridge was still teaching them...nothing. Something needed to change. But what and how?

She sighed and slammed her useless DADA textbook closed and leaned back against wooden chair in the empty library. She had stuck to coming to the library every night in hopes of meeting Draco, but it never came to fruition.

A loud crack sounded next to Hermione, causing her to jump out of her skin. She yelped loudly before turning to the sound with her wand out, pointing at whatever it was that startled her. A tiny creature, with huge eyes and floppy ears stared back at her with a nervous smile on its face.

"Dobby!?" Hermione gasped, lowering her wand and hugging the friendly house elf.

"Miss Hermione!" Dobby greeted before pulling away. "Dobby was sent to get you."

"By who, Dobby?" Hermione frowned, and instinctively clutched her wand tighter.

"Dobby isn't allowed to say, miss. Only supposed to bring you to the secret room." Dobby reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Secret room?" Hermione's eyes widened. "Wait, Dobby, no!"

Before Dobby could follow her command, he snapped his fingers and transported Hermione to a room she had never seen before. She stumbled slightly as the light dizziness in her head quickly faded. She steadied herself and looked around in the room in surprise.

The walls were covered in both red and green paint, giving off a sense of peace to her. The room itself was small, but seemed to provide everything she would want. There was a bookshelf running along the left wall, a fireplace built in on the right wall and a long leather couch with a matching armchair settled in middle of the room, between both walls. A long coffee table stood proudly in front of the couch, littered with trays of tiny sandwiches and cookies with cups of hot chocolate. One thing that she did notice, that also seemed to scare her, was that there were no doors in the room.

"Dobby was told to leave you here, miss." Dobby snapped his fingers and disappeared again with a loud crack.

Hermione frowned and looked around, unsure of what she should do. Her body and mind led her to the bookshelf, that was packed with rare and unique books about everything from Herbology to the Dark Arts. She raised her hand to lightly touch the spines of some of the books, itching to read them now.

"You can read them." Draco's silky and cold voice reached her from the left corner of the room.

Hermione spun around quickly and stood shock-still, staring into Draco's icy grey eyes. Nothing was said for five complete minutes as they just stood, staring at each other. The longer they observed each other, the deeper Hermione's anger grew. Before she knew what she was doing, she was at the couch, grabbing the fluffy pillows that littered the couch and began to throw them at Draco, one by one. All sense of rationality temporarily erased from her mind; only anger was left. Anger at being ignored. Anger at being worried. Anger at loving someone so much that the thought of him being away from her caused her to become so irrational.

Draco stood stone still as each pillow made it's way across the room and slammed into various parts of his body. His stomach, his shoulder, his chest, and most painful of all...his face. As she reached for the last two pillows, Draco strode across the room and grabbed her hands roughly, causing her to drop the pillows as he pushed her back towards the wall.

Her body slammed into the wall with a hard thud, but as she opened her mouth to complain, Draco's lips was on hers. A sigh of relief flowed through her lungs as she leaned her head up, pressing her lips more firmly against his. He pulled away reluctantly and pressed his forehead against her, breathing her in. He quickly re-memorized her eyes, her nose, the tiny freckles that polluted her cheeks, her mass of curly but soft hair, her scent, and finally, the figure of her body that fit so perfectly against his.

"I love you, so fucking much." Draco whispered. "I'm so sorry...it's been very difficult for me…"

"I know." Hermione looked up at him lovingly. "I know Draco. I love you too. I've missed you...selfishly."

"No Hermione, never selfishly. For I've missed you just as much, if not more." he sighed and entwined his fingers with her, bringing her towards the black leather couch.

They sat down in silence for a few minutes, both lost in their own thoughts of where to begin. Draco finally released a breath of air and reached forward to grab a cup of hot chocolate. He handed her the cup before taking the second one for himself.

"Father was more suspicious of us than mother and I had originally thought." Draco began. "After the first week of being home, he...took away the owl I was using to send letters to you. So, I began using mother's owl, which he discovered very quickly, and took that one away too. Now, all our letters are sent after he reviews them. I'm sorry for not writing more, but I had no choice…"

"Oh Draco!" Hermione placed her cup down and scooted closer to him. "Did he...find out...about us?"

"Thankfully, no." Draco gave her a wry smile. "He didn't get any of our letters, before his new...regime."

"How bad is it?" she looked directly into his eyes, so he couldn't hide the truth from her.

"He's teaching me...new spells...new curses...and he's training me to...endure...the unforgivable curses." he revealed.

"Draco!" Hermione pulled back as tears began to form in her eyes.

"It's ok, Hermione." he whispered soothingly, pulling her back against his chest. "I can handle it. What I can't handle is being away from you. I couldn't even sneak away to come find you because...I'm not the only one who's being trained by his father. Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy are in Voldemort's group too, with their parents. So, they've been sticking to me more than usual."

A pang of jealousy surged through Hermione at the mention of Pansy's name. The idea of Pansy Parkinson rubbing up against Draco was enough to make her pull away and pace the room.

"Hermione, she means nothing to me." Draco groaned, knowing exactly what had caused Hermione's change in emotion. "You know this already. You know I love you. Please, don't lose faith in me now. I'm trying my best to deal with everything, but it will be all for nothing if you're not there for me at the end of all this. In fact...I'll lose my mind if I know that you're not supporting me...or believing in me…"

Hermione stopped pacing and sighed, turning to look at him. He was right. She needed to keep believing in him. She knew the real him, more than anyone else. She loved him. Her heart belonged to him. The least she could do was be more supportive.

"What is this room?" she wondered as she glanced around again.

"Ah." Draco's pale cheeks turned crimson slightly. "Well...Severus did this. He knew that it was harder for me lately to see you, so...he spoke with Dumbledore and they created this room for...us. Only you and I...and well, Professor Dumbledore and Severus, of course...can enter the room. We can stay here as much as we like, as long as it's safe enough to be away from our...other...classmates."

"Dumbledore knows!?" Hermione shrieked.

"Apparently he knew before Snape did." Draco chuckled.

"Why did they make this room for us though." she frowned.

"Because...things are going to get very hard for me." Draco revealed. "And you are my reminder of humanity...goodness...and love. I'll need to remember those things as things progress."

"How much harder can they get?" Hermione's eyes revealed the worry she was trying to hide for so long.

"Voldemort wants me and the others to take the Dark Mark soon." He stood up and walked over to the bookshelves. "The Dark Mark isn't just a way for him to call us to him. It's a lot more than that. He would be able to feel our emotions. He will know how much I...love you."

"Draco, what are we going to do!?" she rushed over to his side and grabbed his arm.

"Severus is teaching me...occlumency." Draco said, surprisingly her completely.

"I've only read about that." Hermione murmured. "It's very hard...only the most powerful wizards can master it."

"Severus is the best at it." he revealed. "Apparently Dumbledore has requested him to teach it to Harry as well, soon."

Hermione stepped away and returned to her pacing. Draco tilted his head to the side in concern, watching her closely.

"Harry has been so distant." Hermione finally admitted. "I don't know what's going on. He seems so...lost. I want to help him. I want to be there for him. But he keeps pushing me and Ron away."

"Just keep trying." Draco sat back down on the couch and reached for a sandwich. "Right now though, Harry needs to be learning more spells and curses. Fuck, we all do at this point. Umbridge doesn't teach us anything and it's because...she's working for Voldemort."

"What?!" Hermione exclaimed a second time that evening. "Are you kidding me?"

"Nope." Draco shook his head. "That's what you should be working on now. Teaching yourself new spells and curses. In fact, I should probably teach you myself."

"No." Hermione gasped suddenly and quickly moved to the couch next to Draco. The look in her eyes told Draco that she was forming a new idea. He'd seen thst look too many times before. "We have to teach...everyone."

"They won't want to learn anything from me." Draco laughed. "And you know that will ruin my secret identity."

"True." Hermione smirked. "But you could teach me, and I could teach them."

"They won't want to learn from you." he said as he thought about the idea more. "They'll want to learn from Harry. But...you could teach Harry, since you help both him and Ron with their school work."

"Draco Malfoy, you are a genius." she beamed.

"You and I have both established that fact a long time ago." he chuckled as he pulled her closer to him. "Now, I've been away from you for over a month. Can we stop trying to save the wizarding world and focus on some other needs."

"What needs?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, for example, my lips need to be covered by yours." he wiggled his eyebrows, causing her to laugh as he leaned in and kissed her soundly.

A/N

So, this is where things get really different from the books. The main plots are being kept, but I hope you can see and appreciate my twists to them. Let me know your thoughts guys! Thanks for liking and reviewing! 3 3