AN: Hey all! Big thanks to Bex for beta reading for me and fixing my boo-boos.

I love writing. It is so cathartic for me in an otherwise busy and stressful life. And I love sharing my stories with you. Your follows and reviews make my day.

All my best, lovely readers! – mezy

Lost Souls of Nott Castle

Chapter Five - Dragon

Draco paced the floor in his own sitting room long after he had said good night to Granger. He had tried to sleep, but he found that his eyes wouldn't stay closed. He kept replaying the days' events over and over in his mind.

Hermione Granger had never been one of his favorite people. In fact, he had straight out disliked the girl for as long as he had known her. Not because of her heritage, although that didn't help matters. She was a know-it-all. She thought she was smarter than everyone else. She thought she was better than everyone else. She had complete confidence in herself. And she was friends with Harry bloody Potter.

He had made it his personal mission to knock her down a few pegs any chance he could. Admittedly those chances were few and far between, and more often than not he had failed spectacularly.

Today he had seen a completely different side of her, though. Her confidence was completely shattered. She had looked so lost.

There was a time when he would have loved every second of it. He would have mocked her endlessly. He would have celebrated her misery.

He couldn't do it, though. He couldn't find it in himself to find pleasure in her obvious pain. He did not like the meek, broken girl that he saw today. It wasn't right. It wasn't natural. During the war when she had been captured, when Bellatrix was torturing her right in front of him, that day he had seen hopelessness in her eyes. He had seen defeat. He had seen the moment when she gave up, and it had broken something deep inside him. Today he had seen that same look in her eyes and it was haunting him.

Then there was the moment when he held her, right before he apparated them both to Nott Castle. She had felt warm, soft, vulnerable. The urge to wrap his arms around her, to comfort her, and to never let go, had been overwhelming.

He was going crazy. He had lost his bloody mind. That was the only explanation.

He wanted the confident girl with fire in her eyes back. He needed her back. Too many things had changed in his world. Too much had been lost. This was one thing he could not stand to lose. He would not stand by and let her fade away. Not if he could help it.

The next morning, Hermione woke as the sun was peeking over the horizon. The bed had been so comfortable, and she had felt safe and secure for the first time in a very long time. She stretched her muscles slowly before rolling out of bed.

The shower felt heavenly. She stood under the spray for much longer than was necessary, but she couldn't even remember the last time she had been able to truly enjoy a shower.

The last week had been difficult, there was no denying that. But it hadn't been easy for her before, either. She had spent months living in a tent with Harry and Ron, hiding from snatchers and fighting for her life. After the final battle, she had stayed at the Burrow along with at least six to eight other people at the same time. She slept on the couch, and showers were quick so the next person could get in.

When she finally stepped out of the shower, she took her time drying her hair. She found combs and anti-frizz serum that she gladly applied. The result was that her hair hung in soft waves down her back, almost to her waist.

There was a large selection of make-up to choose from. She had never been big on make-up, but a little mascara and lip gloss would go a long way.

Her next stop was the dressing room. Annabelle had more clothes hanging in her closet than Hermione had owned in her entire life. There were dress robes and formal gowns, silk shirts and thick sweaters, racks of pants, and an entire wall dedicated to shoes. There were also drawers of unmentionables, all in matching sets.

Her fingers drifted over the selection, finally settling on a pair of fitted black pants and a light pink silk blouse. Black boots that went up to her knee finished the ensemble.

Once dressed, she stepped back and looked in the mirror. She hardly recognized herself. It had been far too long since she had been able to pamper herself. Idly, she wondered what Harry and Ron would say if they saw her like this. Would they even notice the difference? Probably not, she thought with a deep sigh.

She looked herself over again and smiled at the reflection staring back at her. It didn't matter what they would say. They had made their choice, and they had made it crystal clear. It was time to move on, whichever direction that may be from where she was now.

With a last look, she left the room and made her way downstairs. She could hear Blaise and Draco talking, so she followed their voices and found them in a dining room. Theo was sitting at the table also, and there was a fourth place setting for her.

She hesitated at the door for a moment, watching the three men that had taken her in. Virtual strangers, and yet they had shown her unexpected, inexplicable kindness.

Admittedly, she had been distracted the night before. In that moment, though, the gravity of what they had done for her struck like a bolt of lightning. A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed hard around it.

"Good morning," she said quietly as she entered the room. Collectively, the three of them looked up. Blaise stopped talking mid-sentence to stare at her as she crossed the room and sat in the empty chair.

The sudden silence in the room weighed heavily on her. She began to feel uncomfortable, like she had interrupted something.

"Theo, are you sure your sister won't mind me wearing her clothes?" She asked a bit nervously. They were all still staring. She pushed her hair back over her ear and glanced down to make sure she hadn't missed a button on her blouse or something.

"Not at all. She hasn't been home since she got married two years ago." Theo assured her. "You look amazing. I almost didn't recognize you. Did you sleep well?"

Her cheeks flamed at the unexpected compliment. She ducked her head, letting her hair cover the red splotches she was sure they could all see.

"Oh...thank you, Theo," she told him after a moment. "That was the most comfortable bed I've slept in since Hogwarts."

She gave him a shy smile and filled her plate with eggs, bacon and fresh apple slices.

They all started to eat, but then a large brown owl swooped in and dropped four large envelopes in the middle of the table. It looked at each of them in turn with an annoyed expression on its face, then left the way it had come.

Theo picked up the packages.

"Blaise," he announced as he tossed one of the heavy envelopes.

"Draco." He tossed the next one at the blond wizard.

"Mine." He dropped that one on the table in front of him.

"And Granger." His brow raised a fraction of an inch before he handed it over to her.

She took it hesitantly and read the front of the package.

"Miss Hermione Granger, Nott Castle." Her eyes darted around the table and finally landed back on the envelope in her hands. "How in the world?"

She flipped it over and saw the Hogwarts' seal on the opposite side. She made a mental note to ask McGonagall how they knew where she was staying when she had not even known herself until twelve hours earlier.

Shaking her head, she tore open the envelope and pulled out several sheets of parchment. As promised, they were the study sheets for her NEWT's. She glanced through sheet after sheet and her heart sank. All of her books, her notes, her study tables were gone.

Slowly, she folded the parchment back up and set it aside. She looked up to see Malfoy smirking at her.

"The library is on the third floor," he stated. "Which I can only assume is where you will actually be staying for the next six weeks."

She was surprised by the tone of his voice. There was no malice like she had heard from him in the past. No mocking as she had come to expect from Harry and Ron. Instead it sounded like light-hearted teasing. The corner of his lip was even tilted up and there was a spark in his eye.

Blaise and Theo both tried, and failed, to hold in their snorts of laughter.

"Shut up, Malfoy." She rolled her eyes at him, but her lips quirked up in a small smile.

She tucked in to her breakfast while the guys resumed their earlier conversation. She was only half listening when she saw Theo staring at her. She glanced around the table and they were all watching her expectantly.

"See, I told you it's not true." Malfoy shook his head.

"What isn't true?" She asked.

"Did you really break into Gringott's and escape on a dragon?" Blaise repeated the question.

"Oh." She blinked several times. "We did do that, yes. It was terrifying. That poor dragon, too. The goblins were torturing it!"

Draco scowled at her.

"That did not happen," he rolled his eyes.

"If you say so." She shrugged her shoulders and smiled sweetly at him.

"How did you get in?" He asked, still skeptical.

"Polyjuice potion." She answered quickly. She could still remember the awful feeling of looking in the mirror and seeing Bellatrix Lestrange looking back at her. A shiver ran down her spine and she involuntarily rubbed her forearm before she even realized what she was doing.

Draco's eyes followed her movements. He swallowed thickly.

"No. You didn't?" His eyes remained locked on her arm, where he had watched his crazy aunt carve into her skin with a cursed blade.

Theo and Blaise shared a look between them, both knowing the topic of conversation had changed but neither understanding the context.

"Do you have any idea what they are talking about, Mate?" Blaise asked.

"I did" she confirmed to Draco. Then she turned her attention to Blaise. "I impersonated Bellatrix to gain access to her vault."

"Bellatrix Lestrange?" Blaise glanced quickly between her and Draco. "How did you manage to get her hair for the potion?"

Images of the dark haired witch kneeling over her, then holding her with a blade to her throat flickered through her mind.

"They were all over my clothes...after." She shuddered involuntarily. She blinked quickly and shook her head to dispel the images, focusing once again on Malfoy.

"She kept asking you if you had been in her vault. She wanted to know what you had taken from there." Draco pushed back from the table. The memory of that day was enough to make him lose his appetite.

"Yes." She also pushed her plate aside. "She was so insistent that I knew we had to go there. She had to have something there that she didn't want us to find."

Thick silence filled the air for a long moment.

"Did you find it, then? Whatever she didn't want you to find?" Draco's eyes seemed to bore into hers.

She held his gaze for a long moment before she smiled at him.

"Of course." She stood up, put both hands on the table and leaned forward slightly. Then she looked at each of them in turn, her eyes landing back on Draco. "It was a piece of Voldemort's soul. We found it. We took it. We destroyed it. Just like we did with all of the others."

She turned on her heel and walked away. Her footsteps never faltered as she left the dining hall and climbed the stairs one by one to the third floor. She left three Slytherins behind her, gaping at her retreating form.

"Let me get this straight," Theo said, breaking the silence that followed her departure. "Granger was caught, tortured by your aunt, escaped, then used the hairs the crazy witch left behind to impersonate her, break into her vault at Gringott's, steal a piece of the Dark Lord's soul, and then escaped on a dragon. Right?"

"Very good, Theo." Draco rolled his eyes. "Ten points to Slytherin."

"Potter's barmy plan, you suppose?" Blaise asked, still staring at the empty doorway.

"Potter? Ha!" Draco asked with a bitter laugh. "Granger was the brains of the operation, remember?"

"I've heard of Gryffindor bravery before," Blaise scoffed. "But that's like a whole other level."

"That isn't bravery," Draco ground out. "It's more like a fucking death wish."

Theo took a long drink of pumpkin juice as he thought about what he had just learned about the girl he had taken in. There was only one conclusion he could reach.

"She's kind of a badass," he stated with a grin.

"A badass?" Blaise asked with a laugh. "Are you going to start fanboying after the Golden Girl now?"

Draco shook his head at his friends. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Then he stood from the table quickly. Grabbing his letter from Hogwarts as well as hers, he turned and left the dining room.

Theo and Blaise exchanged an amused look as they listened to his footsteps stomp up the stairs to the third floor.

The library took up half of the top floor. The walls were lined floor to ceiling with books. There were three rows of bookcases that ran through half of the room. The other half of the room held two large tables, a couch and two chairs arranged in front of a fireplace, and a door leading out to a large balcony.

Hermione took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of leather and old parchment, and feeling like she was home. She felt the tension leaving her shoulders as she ran her fingers along the spines of the nearest shelf of books.

"You forgot this," Malfoy's voice startled her. She hadn't heard him come in on the thick carpeting. She turned quickly, wand in hand, but relaxed almost immediately as she realized she wasn't in any danger.

"Easy there." He held up both hands in mock surrender.

She sighed deeply then put her wand away before reaching out to take the parchment from his outstretched hand.

"Sorry," she said with a shake of her head. "Force of habit."

"A couple of months ago you would have hexed me without any remorse whatsoever," he acknowledged with a shrug of his shoulders. "I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"A couple of months ago you would have deserved it."

They sat down across from each other at one of the tables and opened their respective envelopes of parchment.

"You know I'm the same person today as I was then. Nothing has changed." Draco told her.

She hesitated.

"So am I." Her eyes met his across the table. She could still see the boy that called her names and bullied her when his friends were around. But she could also see the scared boy that watched in horror as she was tortured. The boy that stopped his friend from killing her in the room of requirement. The boy that stood up to Harry and Ron on her behalf.

He saw the girl that was a know-it-all, goody-two-shoes, with her bushy brown hair and too big teeth. The girl that was raised by muggles, but better at controlling her magic than most purebloods he knew. He also saw the girl that stood up for house elves, and withstood over an hour of torture by his crazy aunt - and never cracked. The girl that planned and executed a break-in at Gringott's. The girl that risked everything, that lost everything, standing up for him, defending him. The girl that swallowed her pride and accepted help from the unlikeliest of sources, three literal strangers with questionable motives.

No, neither of them had changed.

And yet somehow, everything had changed.