A/N: Hello! I am so sorry that i haven't updated in a while. i am also sorry that i left it on a cliffie and i didn't update. and i know i'm going to be hunted down with pitch folks. flaming ones. but, thank you to all the people that stayed with me. i'm just amazed that i got no hints/nudges/shoves/pushes/bashings to get this chapter up! i'll be thanking you again! Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Three

Hermione and Draco turned around to find Lucius Malfoy standing in the hallway behind them. Draco immediately took out his wand and stepped in front of his pregnant girlfriend.

'Where's Snape?' Draco asked menacingly. Lucius just sneered.

'The man had to take a walk. I sent him outside.' Lucius said, waving his hand to dismiss the question. He flicked his wand at the other end of the corridor.

Snape fell down, face first into the ground, and lay still, spread-eagled on the floor.

Hermione screamed, thinking the man was dead, and Lucius flicked his wand at her, silencing her.

'Do not worry, he is only stunned. The Dark Lord would kill me if he found out that I killed one of his most faithful servants.' Lucius hissed.

'What do you want?' Draco said. He kept flashing glances to the unconscious man at the end of the hall. Lucius laughed, a high-pitched, cruel laugh.

'You know what I want Draco. I want your precious little mudblood and the filthy little child she carries inside of her dead.' Lucius answered as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'You know you're not going to get that. Pick something else.' Draco snarled. Lucius glared.

'That is all that I will take. Unless you want to die anyway?' Lucius asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Not in your lifetime.' Draco hissed. The boy stood at the ready and aimed his wand at his father. Lucius was just as cautious and glared at the impertinence of his son.

'Prepare to die boy, and when you do, rest assured that your filthy little mudblood won't live another day. Neither will your unfortunate child.' Lucius stated. Draco shot the first hex at the man and Lucius blocked it with ease.

Hermione stood against the wall, tears streaming down her face as she watched her boyfriend and his father duel. Coloured lights streamed every which way and many of the statues and suits of armour were broken, or reduced to dust.

Draco ducked behind a statue for a couple of seconds, just near Hermione, and pulled her down with him. Hermione hugged him tight, not wanting to let go.

'Hermione, love, I need you to get out of here. Please, try to go, I don't want you hurt.' Draco begged. Lucius was aiming spell after spell at the suit of armour, but in his anger, every one of them missed by inches.

'I can't, I won't leave you.' Hermione mouthed. Draco kissed her soundly and pulled away, wiping the tears from her with his thumbs while he had hold of her face.

'Please, Hermione, the last thing I want is for you to die, along with our child, please, just leave, I'll be fine.' Draco whispered, kissing her again before getting up and firing curse after curse at his father.

Hermione stood up, deciding that she should probably do what Draco wanted and save her and the baby. She peeked out from behind the statue and watched Lucius, making sure he wasn't watching her.

Draco had lead his father away from her, and his back was to her.

But Lucius had found a way past his sons' defences and threw him against the wall just as Hermione decided to come out from behind the statue and try to escape. Lucius had already turned around.

She locked eyes with Lucius for only a second, but that was all it took. Instead of aiming his wand at Draco, Lucius turned around and pointed it straight at her. Hermione tried to scream again, but she still had the silencing spell on her, so it was impossible.

Draco looked at where Lucius was pointing his wand and began to run in front of her.

'No!' He yelled, just as Lucius screamed, 'Avada Kedavra!' The green light flashed towards Hermione, and she turned away from it, only to open her eyes a couple of seconds later to find Dumbledore standing in front of her, wand out and pointing straight at Lucius Malfoy.

Draco stood up, from where he had fallen on the floor from trying to get to Hermione and walked over beside Dumbledore, breathing hard.

As for Hermione, she didn't think that she had ever seen her Headmaster so mad. Yes, he had been made at the impostor Moody in her fourth year, but he was madder still.

'Lucius, what do you think you are doing here?' Dumbledore asked, his voice strangely low for one so bright and happy.

'I came here to do exactly what I should have done when I had the girl in my grasp the first time.' Lucius hissed. He pointed his wand at Dumbledore, but before he could even think of a spell to hit him with, he was knocked over the head with a vase, which shattered when it came in contact with his head.

As Lucius fell, they all saw who was standing behind him. Severus Snape.

Hermione almost laughed with joy, if she still wasn't overly shocked at what had happened to begin with.

'The man never could pull off a decent stunner.' Snape drawled, stunning the man laying at his feet and floated him in mid air with a flick of his wand. Dumbledore smiled thinly at the Potions Master and turned to Hermione.

'Are you alright, my dear?' He asked her softly, compassion showing in every little bit of his eyes. Hermione tried to talk, but couldn't, that is, until Draco took the silencing spell off of her.

'I'm ok, just a little bit shocked still.' She whispered. Draco came up beside her and took her into his arms.

'Shh, it's ok now, he's gone.' He whispered to her. Hermione just sobbed into his shoulder as he held her and clutched him back, like her life depended on it.

'Mr. Malfoy, why don't you take young Ms. Granger back to her dormitory, where her friends can care for her, unless you would like to stay with her tonight?' Dumbledore asked, mischief glinting in his eyes.

Draco looked at Hermione, whose face was still buried in his shoulder and looked back up at Dumbledore.

'She needs me tonight; I want to stay with her.' Draco said quietly. Dumbledore nodded and sent them to the Room of Requirement, where he made a room for them.

Draco and Hermione lay down on the bed and faced Dumbledore to say goodnight. After they had done so, Dumbledore made his way over to the door, but before walking out of the room, he looked back with a slight smile on his face.

'Look after her and the baby Draco, they will both need you.' Dumbledore said, and then left the room, closing the door behind him, leaving a very confused and surprised Draco Malfoy behind.

Hermione snuggled up close to Draco and held him tightly in her arms.

'Don't worry Draco that man knows too much anyway. It comes as no surprise to me that he knew before we told him.' She told him. Draco just nodded.

'He was probably waiting in the shadows for the right time to jump out and save someone. That's how he heard it.' Draco muttered. Hermione laughed lightly.

'Probably. You never know with that man. He can be so mysterious sometimes, yet, at others, I think I've got him all figured out.' She mumbled. Draco stroked her hair and nodded absent-mindedly. His thoughts were elsewhere.

'What do you think they will do with my father?' He asked in a whisper. Hermione looked up at him with sad eyes.

'I don't know Draco. I would have thought that they would keep him until tomorrow, when they could take him into the Ministry and show them evidence of what happened, so they could throw him in Azkaban. But really, I'm just not sure.'

Draco nodded as he felt the tears leek out of his eyes.

'I would choose you over him any day, but I can't help but feel hurt by the fact that he won't accept the one good thing in my life. As much as I hate him, I love him too. He is my father after all.' Draco whispered. Hermione sat up a bit and looked him in the eyes. She reached a hand up and placed it on his cheek.

'I'm sorry, Draco; I didn't mean to tear your family apart.' She whispered to him. Draco shook his head forcefully.

'No, you did no such thing. It was just a matter of time before my father went overboard and I knew that my mother was slowly drifting away from him. She loves him so much, but she just can't understand why he does all this. With the Death Eaters, and hating people that are different from him. Especially muggles. They haven't done anything to him. Why does he hate them so much?' Draco muttered, wiping the tears from his eyes.

'He hates them because like you said, they are different. They do things different ways and they have things that we don't have. Like electricity, and cars and all that sort of stuff. He just doesn't understand it, so he hates it. He doesn't understand it so he wants to get rid of it. Don't worry about it too much Draco. There really is nothing you can do about it.' Hermione whispered, stroking his face and looking into his eyes of steely grey.

Draco just nodded and held her in his arms tightly, staring at the wall behind them.

The two were silent for some time, both in their own worlds and thinking about their own things; until suddenly, Hermione spoke up.

'Draco, do you think we should tell the others?' She asked. Draco looked at her thoughtfully.

'I think we should. I have to tell Sierra anyway, she made me promise to tell her when it happened. So, I guess, we better tell Harry, Ron, Pansy, Blaise and Ginny also.' He agreed. Hermione nodded and laid her head back down.

'Do you think things will ever be the same?' She asked quietly. Draco looked puzzled.

'How do you mean?' He asked. Hermione sighed.

'Well, with me having a baby, I'm just going to be even more stressed than I usually am, which isn't very good in the first place,' Draco snorted at this and Hermione hit his arm. 'Secondly, having a child is going to be hard when we still have one year of schooling left, don't you think?' She asked.

'True. It will be hard, but I know that we can do this together. We've been this far, haven't we?' He said with a slight smile. Hermione smiled back at him and nodded, before resting her head down again.

'Get some rest now love; you need it more than I do.' He whispered to her, and she nodded. Within seconds, the girl was asleep.

A/N: And here we are, at the end of another chapter! Thank you to all my amazing reviewers!

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Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You light up my world! i know i said something similar to that last time, but, i am completely umimaginatary. I don't even think thats a real word. oh well.

I think i might be ending the story soon, but don't get your hopes up. We still have to get through seventh year. and i might do an epilogue. i'm not sure.

okay, that just about wraps it up. one last word, REVIEW!