A/N: Talking about Dramione relationship, this chapter has oohhh lots of sparks! - haha, that's what makes Dramione so awesome, the electrifying sparks between them despite the heavy curtain of distrust and frustration and uncertainty. Hope you guys will like it! Thanks to reviewers once again, really glad for your comments that spur me to keep posting! Enjoy (:

"What?" Lupin's eyes were huge and round and disbelieving, as Dumbledore sighed and sank down in his chair. "You sent Hermione withDraco Malfoy? Albus, have you lost your mind? That boy is now a Death Eater, everyone knows that!"

"He may be my cousin, but I'm certainly not siding with someone who decided to just take after that snivelling father of his," Tonks added, scowling.

"Professor, I never question your judgement, but I think you've taken it too far this time." Harry was trying hard not to lose his temper. "You're putting Hermione at great risk!"

"I'm afraid so did you, Harry," replied Dumbledore, amiably. "While I did agree to you trying to let Hermione get closer to Draco to find out more, I didn't expect that they struck up a rather amicable partnership."

Harry cringed and looked at his feet, fists clenched.

"Amicable partnership?" Ron was disgusted. "How can Hermione ever have an amicable partnership with that bloody ferret?"

"Maybe we should let the Headmaster explain himself, Mr Weasley," Minerva McGonagall said, grimly.

"I'd like to see what you have to say, sending poor Hermione into such danger!" Molly Weasley was clearly equally protective of Hermione as she was of Harry and her children, and the furious expression on her face said it all. Arthur tried to calm his wife down by holding her shoulders.

Dumbledore looked at Harry. "I would have had you complete this mission, Harry, because Voldemort has earmarked you as the Chosen One. But there is the fact that Wentervale would likely meet no one but Draco. I believe Draco badly wants to find out how his father died, and why his father let Wentervale go twice. At the same time, Wentervale wants to find Draco to pass on the secrets of the Horcruxes, if there are more than one, that is. I don't believe he would trust anybody else to handle the secrets. After all, the Newtzer's Disease is crippling him with the day."

The fireplace gave a sputter, and out of the flames, a piece of parchment was tossed into the air. With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore caught the parchment spinning towards him. Unfolding it, he read it quickly, and then placed the parchment gingerly on the desk.

"And it seems that Wentervale has met his end."

There was silence.

Eventually, Lupin spoke up again, in a grave voice. "Are you saying that Draco wants to avenge his father?"

"He's a threat in Hogwarts!" Corrinne burst out, angrily. "He just wants to emulate his bloody father, get into You-Know-Who's good book – basically he wants to find Wentervale to kill him! And he probably just killed him so that he could curry favour with You-Know-Who and rise up the ranks!"

Dumbledore looked thoughtfully at the raging Corrinne, then cocked his head to one side. "I believe that even as Wentervale is afflicted with the disease, he is still very powerful, way beyond the capabilities of a sixth-year Hogwarts student."

"Malfoy is different!" Corrinne lashed out. "He's learnt all the Dark Arts skills from that murderer of a father!"

"Corrinne, I understand how you feel. But I have reason to believe that Wentervale was not killed by Draco," Dumbledore said, with an air of finality. Neville awkwardly placed a hand on Corrinne's shoulders to try to ease the anger out of her, but she merely shrugged it off, glowering at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore then turned to Lupin. "Draco has become a very good Occlumens, and what I know are merely hypotheses. With regards to Miss Granger, it seems that it was she who helped me obtain the precious memory from Horace about the Horcruxes, and it seems to me that she trusts Draco a lot, and vice versa."

"This is ludicrous!" Ron muttered.

"Professor," Harry said, his knuckles crackling with the tension in his clenched fists. "Did Hermione tell you anything? I – I think she's been hiding things from me and Ron." With that, he motioned to Ginny, and she held out the parchment on which Hermione had scribbled.

Dumbledore got out of his seat once again, and studied the parchment. Then he stroked his flowing beard thoughtfully. "Again, what I think are hypotheses, but I believe that Lucius Malfoy had left behind clues for his son to find Wentervale. For some reason, both of them came to me with the hope to find something in my office to get to him. And what Hermione has written here, are the clues to – what I think should be the locations of some of the Horcruxes."

Harry looked blank. "Horcruxes?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Another round of storytelling..."

-.-.-.-.-.-

"Do you think that since your father is – no longer around..." Hermione swallowed hard before continuing. "That there is another Death Eater who knows of this place?"

Draco didn't reply; he merely trudged on, his eyes scanning the area for any sign that might possibly lead him towards the Horcrux. They had been walking on and on for quite a while already, but there were nothing but cave walls, stalactites, and stalagmites. On one occasion, he thought he saw a shadow, but when he turned, there was nothing. Sleep was coming in waves, and he must have had been hallucinating. He could feel his frustration bubble within him, and Hermione Granger's incessant mumbling behind him was just pushing him over the edge any moment. Her question was definitely not of much help either.

Hermione knew that Draco was rather touchy at this point in time, and decided not to say anymore. She, too, looked around curiously, hoping to catch a glimpse of something to point them in the right way. These caves were too huge for their liking, and Wentervale had only covered a miniscule part of it in comparison.

"There's an opening here," said Draco, suddenly, and Hermione peered over from behind him to see a narrow opening in one of the cave walls as Draco's wand light illuminated it. "Or at least, I think we can squeeze through. Since Dumbledore thinks we're so skinny," he added, with a hint of distaste.

Hermione ignored him and stepped forward. Then she ran her fingers gently over the opening.

"It's a natural opening," she said, frowning. "Not man-made."

Draco said nothing, but pointed his light at the side of the opening, and Hermione walked over to stare at it.

"This is strange. The opening is natural, but look at this lining here." She pointed at the edge of the opening where there was a thin light grey lining that was hardly visible unless one was at a certain angle to see light reflect off it, which Draco had noticed. "It's man-made!"

Then she turned and inspected the other side. "There's no lining on this side. How very, very strange!"

"Worth a shot," muttered Draco, and he entered the tunnel – sideways.

The whole place was dark and pressing in on them; Hermione felt a little claustrophobic as she squeezed through after Draco. The air became quite stale, and Hermione found herself gasping along the way. She could hear the wheezes coming from Draco as well as he shifted himself along quickly.

The tunnel seemed to be never-ending, and its darkness shrouded over both of them like a heavy curtain. Draco was now a little distance ahead of her; she could feel that he was no longer ahead of her, or rather beside, considering that she was walking like a crab now. After a while, the claustrophobia was settling in full force, and she could feel her legs wobble. Blindly, her left hand reached out to grab; she grabbed air.

"Dra - Malfoy, where are you?" Her voice was now shaking.

"You-you-you..." The echo down the tunnel sent chills down her spine.

"Draco Malfoy!" Hermione now shouted, wincing as she edged past a particular narrow bit.

"Oy-oy-oy..."

"DRACO!"

Hermione stopped moving, her eyes wide with terror. But then she leaned towards her left, and strained to hear something that seemed to be echoing back to her. It was too faint for her to make words out of it, so she tried to move faster – and faster...

"Can – you – hear – me? I – am – down ..."

"You're underground?" Hermione panicked, and her foot began to edge further than her arm, to try to source out any possible openings in the ground.

"Gran – ge... ARRRGHHHHH!"

"DRACO!" The piercing yell frightened Hermione immensely, and she tried her best to squeeze through the rest of the tunnel, waving her left arm and leg about wildly to try to sense any openings. "Draco, talk to me, where are you?"

There was complete silence after the ensuing echo of 'you-ou-ou!', and that scared her more than anything else.

Suddenly, Hermione stopped in her tracks. Then she raised her right arm over her head, with her wand firmly grasped in her hand. She tried to cast light, but there seemed to be a gray mist all around that prevented her from seeing ahead. Finally, she tried a new spell she had picked up by herself in one of the library books on charms. A little silver ball formed at the end of her wand, and then it leapt off into the darkness.

The tinkling sound of the ball vanished not too far away, and she estimated that the opening in the ground was relatively near. Not sure whether to feel relieved or still terribly worried as to what had happened to Draco Malfoy, she inched closer.

To her surprise, the walls started to get further and further away; the passageway was getting wider and wider. And it was no surprise that since that happened, Draco must have been too carried away looking at the walls not to see that the ground in front of him was too smooth and dry to be natural – compared to the uneven and damp cave ground earlier.

"Draco?" Hermione called out, staring at the perfectly smooth piece of ground in front of her.

There was silence again. She conjured up another silver ball and dropped it. The ball disappeared upon contact with the ground; specifically, it dropped right through the ground.

"Draco!"

There was still no reply. Fearing the worst, Hermione pointed her wand at the ground and screamed,

"EXPULSO!"

There was a huge burst of light and sound, and Hermione dove to a corner as the ground blew apart, showering debris all over her.

When the vibrations had stopped, and the air was less dusty, Hermione opened her eyes to see a hole in the ground, decorated with cracks along the sides. There was some kind of light coming from within, a dull orange.

Crawling over, she peered into the hole, and saw that right below was the uneven cave ground. But a little to the right, she noticed a cauldron with bright orange light glowing from it. Her conjured silver ball was just at the bottom of it.

Bracing herself, she leapt into the hole.

"Oof!" She winced as she landed hard on her two feet, sharp pain shooting up her knees and ankles. Her eyes still trained on the cauldron, she took a step towards it, wincing again as her ankle made a rather awkward creaking noise.

Then she halted, and turned around.

There on the ground, was Draco Malfoy, lying spreadeagled on the floor, his eyes closed.

"DRACO!" shrieked Hermione, not caring where she was anymore. Ignoring the pain in her legs, she dashed across and knelt down in front of the motionless blond boy, shaking him hard. Her heart was beating so fast she could barely feel it anymore, and all she could see now was Draco Malfoy lying there unmoving, his wand a distance away from his outstretched arm. She quickly glanced around to see if it had been a Death Eater who had done this to him, but there was no one in sight in this room. Not caring anymore, she looked back at him, and felt herself choke.

"Ennervate! Ennervate!" She desperately waved her wand over him.

To her utter relief, she saw his eyes flutter open, and he let out a groan as he tried to move.

"You're – here?" he croaked, as he grimaced while trying to sit up. Hermione quickly helped him, although the tears were streaming fast and furiously down her face. She choked again as he reached out to grab his wand, then once he was in a sitting position, he rubbed his eyes and stared at her.

"Bloody hell Granger, why are you always weeping?" He scowled, disgusted. "You cried when I called you Mudblood, when Wentervale died, when I said let's move on, and now you're crying again – and for what reason?"

Hermione couldn't believe that he was accusing her of being a crybaby (or so that seemed to be what he implied). "You bastard, I thought you were DEAD!" she screamed, enraged, and even more so when she realised she couldn't stop crying as she yelled at him. "I thought some Death Eater was waiting here for you so that he or she could blast you into oblivion, I thought you were dead, dead, DEAD!"

Before an astonished Draco could say anything, she continued ranting, "You ungrateful Slytherin, you just kept going on and on and didn't even look back to see whether I was there, so maybe you don't care that I'm dead or not – I don't even know why I care about someone who calls me a M-Mudblood!"

She tried to brush the streaming tears off, but in her fury, she ended up tearing even more. Draco stared at her in bewilderment, not knowing what to make out of this situation. He had made girls cry before, but definitely not for the reason that Hermione Granger was now crying for. So she had been crying because she thought he had died. But he had merely slipped and fell into this – well, as he looked around, he noticed that it was a room.

A man-made room.

But before he could explore, he had to deal with Hermione Granger.

Feeling rather awkward, he maintained his scowl as he looked at her. "I'm alright, Granger. Look at me! I heard you call, so I answered, then I just fell down, that's all! And then just when I'm standing here hoping that you might fall in so I should get ready to catch you, there's this huge explosion and then..."

He realised he was rambling, and flushed angrily. Hermione sniffed and wiped her tears with her arm once again before looking straight at him. "You were waiting here to catch me?"

Draco didn't feel like repeating that, so he just rolled his eyes. The truth was, he wasn't used to somebody from school being so concerned about him, much less somebody like Granger – from a rival House and a Mud – well, a Muggle-born to boot. And the way she was crying so badly because she thought he would be gone unsettled him quite a bit.

Then again, the way she was unconscious when he met Wentervale had made him panic as well.

"Come on," he said, gruffly, standing up and holding a hand out to her. "Let's go look at that cauldron. This place isn't part of the natural caves for sure."

Hermione stared at his outstretched hand, and then with a final sniff, she held onto it and pulled herself up.

When she did stand up, she found herself face to face with Draco Malfoy – with very little distance between them. And then once again, she found herself drawn to those eyes of his. Even when both of them were swathed in the orange light from the cauldron, and the gray in his eyes was no longer the shade she remembered it for, it was not for the first time did she notice that he no longer had the arrogant, condescending look in his eyes when he looked at her. Gone was the iciness, instead, there was a certain dullness to his eyes, that made her heart ache as she stared at him. It was a tinge of sadness clouding over his entire face.

Draco stared back at Hermione as he held onto her hand. The soft brown eyes were red and puffy once again from crying, and there were tear streaks down her cheeks as she shuddered one more time with a hiccup. She closed her eyes to swallow hard, and he watched as her eyes fluttered shut. Something caught in his throat as he looked at her face. A face that he had come to recognise as a Muggle-born. A face that he had come to recognise would appear right beside the face of Harry Potter wherever he was walking, if it was not Ron Weasley.

But it was also a face that he had come to recognise as somebody who cared. For him.

Awkwardly, he reached out with his thumb to brush away the tear streaks on her face. Startled by the contact, Hermione's eyes flew open. But all she saw was the same sad expression on his face. His eyebrows were furrowed together, and he looked like he was in pain and frustration all at once.

Every nerve in her body tingled, as he reached out with his other thumb to brush the other side of her face. His eyes were staring at his thumb, then finally, his gaze settled back on her eyes. She felt her breath catch in her throat, and there was a fire burning in her.

Then suddenly, he had pushed her away, and the electricity between them fizzled out instantly. He looked away, and she found herself too embarrassed and awkward to look at him either, so she spun around to stare at the cauldron. But the swift movement took a final toll on her ankle, which she forgot to heal, and she groaned with the pain.

Draco turned to look at her bending down to ease the pain in her ankles.

"You're a witch, if you forgot," he muttered, and whipped out his own wand to heal the pain. Hermione stopped massaging her ankle, and threw him a grateful look as she straightened up. Draco decided to look elsewhere again.

"The cauldron," she managed to say, and Draco's mind immediately focused back onto the sole item in the room. There wasn't even a door around, he noticed, just four man-made cave walls, cave ground, and that bloody cauldron in the middle of the room.

Both of them inched towards the cauldron, staring warily at the orange light from it.

"It's not a Portkey, is it?" asked Hermione, nervously.

Draco decided to summon up his courage, and he walked over to it. Then he stared at the bubbling orange liquid inside. The heat and light from it was burning his face, so he stepped back again. "Get your hand near it. When I count to three, we grab hold of it. Just in case it is a Portkey."

Hermione frowned, but she obeyed him and stepped forward, her hand outstretched.

"One..."

She steeled herself for the lurching in her stomach. This reminded her of when Dumbledore asked them to place their hands on his arm in his office. It seemed like it had been a long time ago.

Where was Dumbledore?

"Two..."

Funny enough, her stomach was already lurching before any kind of teleportation. She closed her eyes tightly and braced herself for Draco's command.

"THREE!"

Hermione cringed as much as she could to hopefully alleviate the crunching in her stomach.

Or at least, what she had expected.

She opened her eyes in confusion, and saw Draco's eyes half-open and staring at the cauldron in front of them, his face illuminated a fiery orange.

"Clearly, it is not a Portkey," remarked Draco, in an annoyed tone.

"Well, you thought so too! Besides, it was a precaution!" Hermione snapped. Then she peered over the cauldron and its bubbling liquid. Frowning again, she walked the perimeter of the room slowly. Draco watched her as she traced the walls with her fingers, the way she did when she fingered the entrance of the narrow passageway they had squeezed through. When she was satisfied that she had covered all ground, she returned to her original position beside the cauldron and shook her head.

"There's no way out!" Her frustration was evident, and her bushy hair seemed even frizzier than ever. Draco's face twitched as he continued watching her grumble under her breath and stare at the liquid.

"I'm assuming we have to add something to this cauldron or say some incantations," Hermione said, at last, looking at Draco with an air of resignation. "Not that I know what."

"Know-it-all Hermione Granger has come to a dead end, alas!" Draco declared dramatically, causing Hermione to glare at him. "No points for Gryffindor!"

"And none for Slytherin, seeing as you are not offering anything constructive!" Hermione pursed up her lips.

Draco matched her glare, and then bent down to examine the cauldron. It was a normal pewter cauldron, the kind that all students had to buy for their Potions class in first year, nothing special. Surely this must be the way to find the Horcrux hidden in these caves; if not, why would there be a cauldron out of nowhere, and why would someone bother to cast a magic net above that would disguise the entrance to this room as part of the cave floor?

"Look here!" Hermione exclaimed suddenly, from the other side of the cauldron.

Draco sidled over, and saw her finger pointing at the bottom of the cauldron. An intricate mass of carvings were visible.

"It says 'Innervo' and that looks like a stick pointing to a really small Dark Mark," muttered Hermione, peering hard at it.

"Innervo?" Draco looked puzzled. "That sounds like a spell."

"I can't believe I haven't heard of it!" wailed Hermione.

Draco rolled his eyes, and then stared back at the carvings again.

A stick? It looked rather like a...

Then it hit him.

The day the Dark Lord officially made him a Death Eater, he had watched as all the senior Death Eaters – or at least, those who were still alive and loyal – gather round in two lines in front of the Dark Lord, forming a large aisle that Draco walked up to the middle and knelt down. He had kept his head down, but he could hear mutterings from all around, and then the Dark Lord asked him to raise his head. He saw orange light glowing from all the arms of the Death Eaters – their sleeves all rolled up, and their wands pressed to the Dark Mark, emitting an eerie orange glow that shot up to the sky. Then slowly, the Dark Lord raised his hands, and the orange lights all bent towards him.

With a push, the orange light blasted forwards and knocked Draco square in the face.

He remembered that he had yelled out in pain.

Then the Dark Lord was speaking.

Who are you, and why are you here?

The beginning of the initiation ritual.

I am Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, and I pledge myself to the service of the Dark Lord with the undertaking of my late father's responsibility as your humble servant. I will fulfill my duties to the best of my abilities, and I will serve the Dark Lord with unwavering loyalty, and – a stone cold heart.

Draco felt himself involuntarily shudder when he felt the last few words come back to him.

"What is it?" Hermione couldn't hide her excitement when she noticed some flicker of recognition in his eyes as he gazed at the carvings. Slowly, Draco stood up, and Hermione followed suit. Then he pulled out his wand.

Hermione's expression slowly morphed into that of horror. "What are you doing?"

"Only a Death Eater can enter," said Draco, stonily. "It's a spell the Dark Lord created."

"I'll hold onto you," said Hermione, instantly.

Draco didn't like that idea, but Hermione looked so fierce and defiant that he relented. She held onto his left arm as he placed his wand onto his right arm. Then he closed his eyes and muttered,

"Innervo."

Suddenly, there was an invisible force that blast Hermione backwards, pulling her away from Draco, and she was hurled straight into the wall. Then, a sudden numbness overtook her as she fell flat on her face onto the cold stone ground. Groaning, she tried to lift herself up, but she could barely feel her limbs with the impact.

But even as she lay on the floor, she was sure of one thing.

Draco Malfoy was no longer around.

"D-Draco!" she screamed, and tried her best to roll herself over.

Seeing the cauldron upside down, and the carvings glowing in orange, her heart thudded crazily.

"DRACO MALFOY!"

He was gone. The spell had only permitted him to enter.

This was the second time that she had lost him. She could feel panic pump through her body.

This is different. Now they were separated, in the depths of a cave in Ukraine. And there was no other way out of this room.

Hermione felt petrified, but she tried her best to think of Harry and his courage, and Ron and his impeccable comic timing, and then took a deep breath. Slowly, she felt the blood ease back into her limbs, and as the pain overtook her, she groaned.

Now what should she do?

-.-.-.-.-.-

The next second Draco opened his eyes, he saw that he was still standing in the cave room.

But now, in the wall, there was a huge doorway.

He suddenly realised the icy cold fingers of Hermione Granger that had gripped his left arm was no longer there. Spinning around, he saw that she had been slammed against the wall, and was now moaning on the floor.

"D-Draco!" He heard her scream.

"I'm here!" he yelled, but she didn't seem to hear.

Her eyes rolled upwards to meet his, but they swivelled away again towards the cauldron, a wild look in them.

"DRACO MALFOY!"

The way she shouted his name was so full of fear and pain, that he tried to run towards her. But there seemed to be a force field of some kind, because he found himself knocking into an invisible barrier that shone blue when he came into contact with it. He tried to ram into it, but it only grew blue again and sent him rebounding.

She couldn't see him or hear him. The powerful magic that the spell had evoked had created a boundary that he could not overstep.

I think I have overstepped many boundaries in the span of one night.

Was one night over? Was it daybreak already?

But that was inconsequential.

Staring helplessly at her trying to get up, and the way she looked around for him desperately, but couldn't see him, made him feel very uncomfortable and unhappy.

Unhappy? Why am I unhappy?

But this meant that they were separated. And there was no way out for Hermione Granger.

It could only mean that he had to venture to find this Horcrux on his own.

It's only the third one we know of, and I have no bloody idea what's awaiting me!

But what about her?

He watched as she clambered up and tried to trace the walls with her fingers again, limping as she did.

He felt cruel as he turned his back on her, and then walked up to the doorway. When he stepped within a metre of it, the door began to creak open inwards.

Adrenaline was coursing through his veins; at the same time, fear was overtaking him completely. Somehow, the presence and consciousness of Hermione Granger always made him want to assume courage, but now his courage failed him. He felt himself shaking as the door opened further.

"Hermione..." He couldn't control himself; he sounded like he was whimpering. He wanted to give himself a mental slap for being weak. For wanting her to be right beside him as he made to walk through the doorway. It was dark ahead. He pulled out his wand, his hand shaking uncontrollably.

At the same time, he thought he heard her call his name.

"Draco, where are you...?"

It was heartrending, hearing her voice echo round the room. But he blocked his ears, shut his eyes, and steeled his nerves. The stinging of the Dark Mark on his arm reminded him of the identity he was supposed to have assumed. The mind that he had to compartmentalise. The image of his father floated back into his mind, and he gripped his wand tighter than ever.

Then he walked through the doorway.