AN: I must have rewritten this chapter twenty times. LOL. Big thanks to Bex for catching like fifty mistakes that I missed.

I hope you are all enjoying the story. I love your reviews. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. (Even the ones that are a bit critical because we all have our opinions.) I've said it before on other stories, and I'll say it again – if you are reviewing simply to insult me or the story, simply move along. I write because I enjoy doing it. I post because I want to share what is in my head with others that seem to enjoy it as well. I am not aiming to please anyone here. Just saying. That said, I hope you like this latest update.

Lost Souls of Nott Castle

Chapter 6 - Onward

Theo and Blaise were laughing as they joined Hermione and Draco in the library. They found the two staring intently at their study sheets and pointedly ignoring each other. Despite that, there was a reddish tint to Hermione's face and the sheet Draco was supposedly reading was upside down.

Theo looked at Blaise and raised his brow. They had both noticed the nuances, it would seem. Theo wanted Hermione to feel comfortable in his home, though, so he shook his head briefly. A warning to his friend to let it go, at least for the time being.

"Looks like they started without us," Blaise noted as he took the seat next to Hermione and across from Draco.

"Without any books or notes?" Theo laughed. "Unlikely. I bet this git didn't even show Granger where to find anything in here."

Hermione looked up just in time to see Malfoy roll his eyes.

"It's a library, Theo. Her natural habitat. I'm sure she can figure out where to find books and parchment."

Theo smacked him in the back of the head.

"Can't you be nice for five minutes?" He asked.

"I was being nice," Draco argued. "You were the one that assumed she needs guidance like some first year."

Hermione wasn't sure what to think of their banter. She glanced at Blaise and saw that he was trying not to laugh. He caught her eye and winked at her.

"Sorry about these two," he whispered to her. "Idiots. Both of them."

She bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"Come on, Granger," Theo told her. "I'll show you the highlights."

She sat there for several seconds before she stood and followed him to the bookshelf to the left of the door. She didn't have the heart to tell him that Malfoy had been right - she had spotted the shelves of text books along with the cabinet of parchment, inkwells and quills almost as soon as she had entered the library.

When she returned to her seat, she could feel gray eyes watching her. She glanced at Malfoy. He just shook his head with a knowing smirk on his face before returning his gaze to the parchment in front of him.

For the remainder of the day, they worked together to create a study schedule for the next six weeks.

Hermione sat back and watched them for a while, fascinated by their technique. She was used to studying alone. These three had obviously studied together for years. She felt very much like an outsider at first. Soon, they pulled her into the rhythm of question and answer they had going on, and she found that she fit right in.

Along with that knowledge, she also felt a bit of melancholy. For the past seven years she had tried to study with her friends. Her housemates. Her classmates. She had always left feeling disappointed. When others had joined her, they usually expected her to either do their homework for them or simply to give them the answers.

How much more enjoyable would her school days have been if she had a group to study with that cared as much about learning the material and passing the tests as she had? It seemed incredibly unfair.

Blaise picked up on her shift in mood first. When they all headed downstairs for lunch, he stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm.

"Is something wrong?" He asked her after Theo and Draco had disappeared through the doorway.

She appraised him for a long moment. His dark eyes were searching hers curiously.

"No," she told him with a small shake of her head. "Nothing is wrong. I was just thinking that it's nice to be around people that take this seriously."

She motioned to the table and the parchment that was laid out across it. Then she wrapped her arms around herself.

"Yes, well, if you would like for me to start whining and demand you give me the answers, I will." He winked at her. "You know, to make you feel more at home."

She nearly snorted in laughter.

"That won't be necessary," she told him with a bright smile. "But thank you for the offer. It was very kind of you."

"Anytime." He assured her. With an over exaggerated sweep of his arm, he motioned for her to proceed before him.

After they ate a light lunch, they returned to the library and worked together for several more hours. By evening they had completed a study schedule for the next six weeks that would incorporate all of the topics in the study sheets that any of them had felt they needed revision on.

When they were finished, Hermione decided to retire to her rooms rather than join them for dinner. The day had been unbelievably taxing for her. She felt like she was one hundred percent on guard the whole time. Waiting, preparing for something bad to happen, even though it never did.

Part of her felt guilty for even thinking that these men, who had taken her in during her time of need, had some kind of ulterior motive for inviting her to stay. In the past twenty four hours, they had been nothing but nice to her. No insults. No mocking. In fact, they had each gone out of their way to make her feel welcome. Even Malfoy.

The other part of her, however, was telling her to maintain constant vigilance. They had no reason to want to help her. They were Slytherin. Everything she had ever learned about their house told her that they were self-serving individuals. She could actually hear Ron in her head telling her that they had to be using her somehow.

The round and round that was happening in her head was exhausting, and it was causing quite the headache. Once in her room and safely warded away from the rest of the castle, she ran a hot bath and slipped beneath the water.

The jets in the side of the tub massaged her tense muscles until finally she was able to take a deep breath and just relax. Before she could relax too much and fall asleep, she stepped out of the tub and into a hot shower.

When she finished cleaning herself, she dressed in cotton shorts and a tank, then she sat on her balcony overlooking the lake. She let her mind wander as she drank pumpkin juice and listened to the birds chirping nearby.

Suddenly a harsh reality made her breath catch in her throat. Mere days earlier she had commandeered a muggle hotel room just so she could take a shower before being seen at Hogwarts. Tonight she had necessities at her fingertips that she had given up hope of ever having again.

She went from having nothing at all, to having everything she needed in one day.

With that realization, she came to a very important conclusion. She honestly did not care what their ulterior motive may be. Whatever it was, as long as they didn't cause her physical harm, it would be worth it.

Settling back in her chair, she stretched her legs out in front of her. She drifted off to sleep wondering what the next day would bring.

Draco stared at the chess board in front of him. Theo had somehow managed to put his king in check and he couldn't figure out for his life how the hell that had happened. He had never lost Wizard's Chess to Theo.

"I think it's the Granger effect," Blaise snorted a laugh and downed half of his butterbeer.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Draco grumbled as his eyes flicked over the board.

"I think he means you're thinking about what she's doing alone in her rooms instead of focusing on protecting your king," Theo followed up with a smirk.

Draco rolled his eyes and finally made his move. Twenty seconds later his king crashed to the ground.

Theo threw his hands in the air and whooped in celebration at his victory.

"Remind me to thank her in the morning," he laughed.

Draco groaned and grumbled to himself. He wiped his hands across his face and stared at the board once again. That move had been a rookie mistake. He left his king wide open to Theo's knight. He knew better!

"Granger has nothing to do with it," he argued. "I'm just tired is all."

"Whatever, mate." Blaise gave Theo a high five, grinning from ear to ear.

Draco opened a new bottle of butterbeer and stalked away from the chess board, slouching into the armchair in defeat.

"Well played, Theo," he admitted begrudgingly, tipping his bottle in his friend's direction.

Theo stood and took a deep bow, elated that he had finally toppled the blond man's reign as Wizard Chess Champion.

"Speaking of Granger," Blaise said after a few minutes. "Have you guys noticed how, I don't know, skittish she seems? What's up with that?"

Draco sighed and dropped his head. He had noticed that she was a bit stand-offish all day, but had tried to ignore it.

"She's probably just nervous being here, right?" Theo answered. "A lion in the snake pit."

"Maybe," Draco admitted. "It could just be me, though. You two never did anything to her as far as I know, but I was horrible to her since the day we met."

"She testified to keep you out of Azkaban, though. I would say she's over that." Blaise reasoned.

"Still, she doesn't have any reason to trust any of us, does she?" Theo countered.

"She was betrayed by the people she considered family," Draco sneered. The venom in his voice surprised even him. "I doubt she'll ever trust anyone again."

That thought did not sit well with him at all. He could see it in her eyes every time she looked at him.

"That makes sense," Blaise nodded. "It explains why she looks like she's waiting for the other shoe to drop."

They all knew it was more than just that, though. She was expecting to be stabbed in the back at any moment. Mocked, maybe. Humiliated. Thrown out like yesterday's garbage.

In the library she had been stiff. Formal, almost. Answering direct questions, but never interjecting into the conversation. She kept her head down and observed them. As soon as they had finished their study tables, she had gone to her room. She had not even joined them for dinner, opting to eat by herself instead.

"I'm just going to say it," Theo spoke suddenly into the silence that had fallen over the three of them. "I think she's broken."

Draco emptied his bottle as he mulled over Theo's words. Was she broken? Had Potter and Weasley damaged her faith in humanity so badly that there was no coming back? He absolutely refused to believe that.

"No," he decided finally. "She isn't broken. She's just a little lost. She needs to find her way back to herself."

Theo and Blaise shared a look.

"Hell," Blaise noted. "We're all a little lost. Seems to me like she's in the right place."

Theo had to agree with him. It was the reason he had extended invitations to his friends to begin with. In their own ways, they were all orphans after the war. They weren't quite ready to be adults yet and forge their own paths, but they were not kids anymore either. They had all seen too much. They had all been through too much.

There was no innocence left in the residents of Nott Castle.

Theo's father had been killed at the final battle. His mother had died years earlier. The only family he had left was his sister, and she had moved to Paris and never looked back. They kept in touch through owls once a month, but that was all.

Blaise's mother had deserted him and fled to Italy when the Dark Lord returned. She had feared for her life and the life of her latest husband, who just happened to be a muggle born wizard. Blaise had woken up one day the previous summer and found both of them gone. She left him a cryptic note, telling him to stay safe but not to try to find her. He had not heard a word from her since.

Draco's father was rotting in Azkaban, right where he belonged. Once the Dark Lord had realized his mother lied about Harry Potter being dead, he had killed her himself. Draco found her body in the midst of the ensuing battle.

"Do you think we'll find our way back to ourselves, then?" Theo asked thoughtfully.

Draco sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. Would he find his way back? Did he ever want to go back? After everything he had been through?

"I don't know about you guys," he said slowly as he stared into his empty bottle. "I'm not going back to what I was."

He looked up and saw his friends staring at him. A little surprised, maybe, but he could definitely see pride in their eyes.

After a moment, Theo cleared his throat.

"I don't think any of us will," he admitted. "That's good, though, right? We have a chance to start over. No expectations. No predetermined destiny. Instead of finding our way back to ourselves, it's time to figure out who we are really supposed to be."

There was a heavy feeling in the room as they all contemplated Theo's words.

"Okay, enough of this sappy shite." Blaise rolled his eyes. "We sound like a bunch of Hufflepuffs."

With a rush of air, Draco laughed and agreed. Apparently having a Gryffindor girl in the house was all it took to turn the three of them into a bunch of pansies.

Shortly after, they turned in for the night.

Draco laid in bed staring at the ceiling for a good long time. The epiphany he had earlier was still fresh in his mind. For the first time in years, he took a deep breath and did not feel the weight of his past on his shoulders. The power to move forward was his and only his.

He let his mind wander to the witch next door. He wondered if she would want to go back to who she was before, or if she felt like the rest of them. Rather than going back, maybe she wanted to put the past behind her and move forward as well.

As he drifted off to sleep, his mind was filled with brown eyes and soft curls and limitless possibilities for the future.

Friday morning Hermione woke to the sound of rain gently falling. She peeled her eyes open and blinked several times before the view came into focus. For one heart-stopping moment, she couldn't remember where she was. Then she released a deep breath when she remembered she had fallen asleep in the lounge chair on her balcony the night before.

She laid there for a few more minutes just watching the steady rainfall. Until her bladder convinced her she needed to get up. She stretched out her muscles and went about starting her day.

She dressed in charcoal gray pants and a cream loose fitting blouse. Once again she found Theo, Blaise and Draco in the dining room eating breakfast.

She took a deep breath and joined them. The atmosphere was lighter than it had been the day before. Maybe that was just her? She felt lighter, more relaxed, more comfortable. The previous evening she had realized that they all seemed to be genuine. It was unlikely that they were using her for something nefarious. And even if they were, she would take it over being homeless.

The change in her perspective made all the difference in the world. During breakfast, she joined in the conversation. A small part of her still expected them to mock her or dismiss her, but they never did.

The remainder of the day was spent in the potions lab. They took turns partnering up and quizzing each other on the properties of ingredients and the purposes of various potions. Not once did any of them make her feel ridiculous for knowing obscure facts about different ingredients.

In fact, she and Malfoy got into a very in depth conversation regarding the properties of moonstone and spent hours that afternoon just talking about that topic. She was almost positive that it was the most intellectual discussion she had ever had, with anyone.

At dinner she regaled them with the tale of brewing polyjuice potion in second year. She might have left out the part where she turned into a cat and was in the hospital wing for weeks because of it.

As she lay in bed that evening, she felt calm and peaceful. If she was being honest with herself, she couldn't even remember the last time she felt that way.

She decided that she really liked the way it felt.