The inside of the palace seems to even more magnificent than the outside. The floor was stone marble and the walls were adorned with blue marbles and portraits were hung up. A spiral staircase led up, at least five floors, the working area with their labs and weaponry and a war room on the first floor. There was a common room on the second floor and rooms for them to reside in. The ground floor had a dojo, some empty spare rooms, and the kitchen and dining hall.

Even though Draco lived his whole life in a huge mansion, he was still astonished by it. The walls also had designs curved, in one word the whole place was just dreamy. Aiden left them there to explore the palace. Everyone scattered around to see the place.

Hermione took her bags upstairs and took the room beside Harry and Ginny. The bedroom also had an attached bathroom. The place just seems to get better. There was a four-poster bed, velvet curtains lead to a small balcony overlooking the garden. A bedside table and a bookshelf with just one book on the lowest shelf. She picked up the book, it was a hardcover binding, dust had settled on it. She removed the dust revealing the title written in calligraphy "Rumblings of my mind" she opened it, it seemed like some sort of memoir of a person named Alexander Reokin. She tried reading but it seems to be written in some ancient script. She made a mental note to translate it later, right now she needed to take a nice long shower. The bathroom had a nice bathtub that seems to be floating in mid-air. Everything here was astonishing, and as she touched the tub it filled up immediately and scented candles appeared. Well, this place made her forget her own apartment.

Draco settled into his room, the interiors were similar to that of Hermione. He unpacked his luggage and settled in for a quick nap. As he lay on the bed, sleep seems to have evaded him, his thoughts were diverted to his mother, she would be alone in the huge manor.

"Maybe I should have asked someone to stay with her" After fidgeting for a while he decided sleep was out of the question, so he went on the examine the room. And in the bookshelf, he too found a similar notebook, the memoir of Alexander Reokin. He flipped through the pages, it all seemed gibberish to him, the script was English but it was portraying a different language, one that he didn't know of. He didn't put much thought into it and decided to head downstairs to eat something.

There was a fruit basket at the dinner table and seeing as he was tired to go seek out food in the kitchen he just decided to do with a green apple, as he sat down he saw Granger come out of the kitchen holding a plate of waffles.

"Hey, Granger. Seems like your ex decided not to join us. Too scared I presume." He smirked at her.

The comment seemed not to affect her at all, she simply smiled at him, " Yes I guess so Malfoy, not everyone has the heart of a lion like you." She continued giving him a sarcastic smile. Malfoy was about to retort back when suddenly a parchment appeared out of nowhere in front of both of them. It was a message.

All members residing in the palace are to meet at the war room on the first floor as soon as you receive this.

As soon as they finished reading it the parchment burnt into pieces.

"Well guess they're pretty serious about the no materialistic message thing," Draco said while finishing off the rest of his snack. "Well Granger, shall we then?" His head tilted downwards to look at her face. She took one of the waffles and went along.

The war room looked like the ones from a book. It has scriptures and maps on the walls. Statues and other dark objects and weapons that possibly dated back centuries. Aiden was sitting in the centre chair in front of the huge map laid out on the table. Harry and Ginny were present, along with a few others.

Aiden stood up, seeing as many people have gathered.

"Well guys, as you were not able to travel through a portkey, and had to travel physically, your magic left a trace. We have enchantments around the place to ward off any locator spell, but we can never be so sure. Hence we will be having a patrol of the perimeter every night, just after dinner. As per the boundary area, four wizards will take patrol duty each day. Now if any four would like to volunteer please?" He looked around for anyone to step up.

A few hands went up. "Okay well I suppose for tonight we could go with, Mr. Nixon for the east wall, Miss Dibbon west wall, Mr. Malfoy the north wall, and Mr. Zabbini the south wall." He gave another pause, waiting for their answer.

The four nodded. "Well then that was much it, and if there's any message that you would like to pass onto your family or friends you should tell, Genya. She's the head house-elf, she goes out to get resources every other day. She shall also relay your messages. Well, that's pretty much it then. We are waiting for some of the resources we need, to go further with our plan with the Heretics. Tomorrow I believe we will start with our strategy. As for today, let's have dinner and sleep off. I guess you all are pretty tired after the eventful day" He looked at everyone with a subtle smile.

The dinner at the palace was quite astonishing, a nice three-course meal. After dinner, the four of them headed on for the patrol. Hermione, Harry, and Ginny gathered around the fireplace in the common room.

"This feels like we are back at Hogwarts isn't it" Hermione was quite enthusiastic about everything here. Harry grinned at her.

"Well Hermione it does seem like you are loving it here, now all you need is a library and you would be set here" Ginny laughed at it. Hermione couldn't help but join in with them. Soon they were talking about their days at Hogwarts and laughing, enjoying the beautiful time. For a moment, she forgot all about cheating exes and the threats hanging on their heads.

"Oh! I have to show you guys something. Come along!" Hermione excitedly stoop up and strutted towards her room. Harry and Ginny followed her in. She went to the bookshelf and picked up the memoir.

"Look, it's a memoir but it is written in ancient relics, do either of you know the language or have any idea what it might be?" She handed them the book and sat down. Harry flipped open the page and showed it to Ginny, both just shook their heads.

"Sorry Hermione, translation and all that, I'm not good at it. You are the smart one"

Hermione sighed." It seems interesting you know and looking at the cover, I'm sure it's pretty old. And, the title, look its written in gold, and the cover is pure leather bound. It could belong to someone who had lived here before, someone quite wealthy, like maybe a prince perhaps."

"Hermione, based on past experiences, you should be careful about diaries of princes and sketchy people." Ginny looked at her, she was right though. After the incident with tom riddle's diary and the potion book of the half-blood prince. Going through a strange book did seem like a risk. Hermione set the book aside for the moment.

"Well guys, I'm retiring for the day. Harry u coming?" Ginny yawned.

"Yeah, I'm tired too. Alright them Mione see you tomorrow." Harry hugged her goodnight and he and Ginny went to their room.

Hermione was staring at the book kept on her shelf. It almost looked like it was taunting her for backing away. She went to pick it up when suddenly a loud noise came from downstairs. She ran out to see what the commotion was about, wand in hand she ran downstairs.

There was blood on the floor, and two bodies were dragged in. She ran to see who it was. She gasped when she saw the scene before her.

Draco and Miss Dibbon, both drenched in blood. Draco was wailing loudly clutching his chest but Dibbon was quiet. It was when she went closer, she realized, Dibbon was dead.

Her eyes, vacant staring in front and her body was limp.

"Is there a healer! Quick someone, we need a healer!" Zabini was holding Draco equally terrified.

Hermione rushed to him and kneeled beside him. "Dibbon was our healer. Where's he hurt I can help him" Zabini looked at her.

"Granger you're a potion maker, how can you help! He broke his ribs and there's a lot of blood here you can't fix that!" Zabini almost yelled at her.

"Blaize! let me help! I know enough spells to fix him. Need I remind you I spent months on the run searching Horcruxes, healing and fixing spells were a requirement then" She was getting impatient. He was bleeding profusely and he had the audacity to question her abilities at the moment. Draco let out another loud wail. The blood had started to seep into Hermione's clothes as well.

"Now get away and let me fix him!" She told him sternly.

"You better not make it any worse Granger!" grudgingly Blaize handed over his best friend to her.

She looked properly at his condition, it seems the blow to his ribcage came from a sharp object.

"Malfoy are you hurt anywhere else that isn't bleeding?" He painfully grunted a quick no.

"Okay! I'm gonna need everyone to give me some space here and Blaize quick run-up to my room and grab my red bag. It's on the table. Go!" Blaize ran upstairs wasting no moment.

She started taking off his shirt, the scene that unfolded was more horrific than all the blood lying around. His chest has been gashed open, and the wound was deep and there were multiple slashes across his torso. Draco's screams seemed to have slowed down to a low whimper and his eyes were drooping.

Hermione waved her wand over the open wound and started sealing it. "Serour crosreosis Regurus" she started chanting but the wound wasn't closing.

"Granger" Draco spoke in a very strained voice. "You can't help me, I saw the thing that hit me-" He started coughing up blood. Hermione held his face and looked at him. "No, hey! I'll fix you up don't worry. You need to try and concentrate here I need you to work with me okay? Try not to shut your eyes" She started using another spell. "Fesmorlis Incortil" She hovered the wand over his wound and kept chanting the spell. The blood seems to have slowed down. Blaize came up and gave her the bag.

"Okay there's a round vial with a purple potion in it, grab it and mix it in some oil from the kitchen, quick!" Blaize ran up and prepared the potion.

"Here" He handed her the concoction. "Granger! why is he not healing are you sure you can do it?"

Hermione took the concoction and started rubbing on his temples. "Yes Blaize, I'm certain I can, now go grab me some towels and clean the blood." This was very surreal to her, blood, wounds, healing people it was all very familiar. Not long ago has she been doing these for Harry and Ron.

"Okay Malfoy, the salve will keep your heart rate steady, now focus on breathing. The blood has stopped now we need to stitch you up." Draco was in much pain to comprehend half of what she was saying, he just nodded along at her. She started working on shutting the wound, and Draco let out a heart-wrenching screech.

"Granger! what the fuck! are you trying to kill him" Blaize shouted at her.

"I'm stitching the wound; the process hurts but its a quick fix. there will be pain-numbing potions in the bag grab them"

Hermione poured down the potion into his mouth. Draco relaxed a bit and she continued with sealing the wound. After the wound closed it was time to fix the broken bones.

"Okay Malfoy this is gonna hurt like a bitch even with the numbing potion so brace yourself"

"Jesus Granger! you trying to heal me or kill me" even at this state his snarky remarks were still coming out. Hermione went on to fix the bones and he let out an animalistic growl and grabbed her other arm tightly. "Merlin! Granger, it is killing me, Granger you're killing me it hurts! Grang-" and all of a sudden no sound was coming out from his mouth. Hermione looked at him quizzically. Ginny came forward, "Silencing charm, his shouting wasn't helping" Ginny looked at Malfoy pointedly, who was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. Hermione continued with her spell and soon all of his bones were fixed, but there was still a lot of blood from other wounds.

"Well, Malfoy I don't have enough salve for the wounds, and making a new batch will take hours, so let's hope you won't mind muggle medications." She looked at him for any sign of objection but he just nodded. She put some ointments and bandages over the cuts and bruises. By the time she was done, it was almost midnight. Dibbon's body was moved to an empty room in the basement, Aiden decided as it was quite late and they didn't know what hit Malfoy so it wouldn't be safe to go out and bury the body. Her body was cleaned and dressed, she was kept in a casket.

After Hermione was done bandaging him up, Blaize took him to his room. His wounds made him weak so he was limping. She looked at the retreating figure going up the stairs. The blood that soaked up in her clothes had dried and cleaning them by hand would be a tedious task so she tried cleaning by magic, but it didn't work on it. "Huh, strange". She tried it again but nothing happened. "Maybe I'm too tired". She went up to her room and left the clothes in the bathroom and went on to see Dibbon.

Many people were gathered around the casket, Rufus was lying beside the casket, his eyes looked sad and he let out a soft whimper now and then. It felt so strange looking at her. Just hours ago she was eating dinner with them and now she's gone. Suddenly the palace didn't felt much of a happy place to her, it hasn't been even a day since they arrived and they already lost one of their own. Hermione walked up to Rufus and patted his back, he looked up at her, his eyes big and moist, it was heartbreaking for her to see him like that. Dibbon had Rufus since he was a little pup, she lived alone only her dog for company, and now Rufus was left alone. She picked him up and cradled him close.

"It's okay sweetheart, you'll get through it, she's in a better place now." She kissed his head and patted his back. A tear fell down her cheeks. She couldn't bring herself to look in the casket again. Dealing with deaths, though she had experience with it, didn't make it any easier. That could have been one of her closest friends. She, Harry, and Ginny all volunteered for the patrol, it could have been any of them. And judging by Malfoy's wound whatever attacked them was very powerful.

She saw Harry sitting in the corner and went and sat beside him.

"Hey, Mione you doing okay?" He looked at her and spoke softly. She nodded and smiled at him.

"It's just that seeing Malfoy all wounded and Dibbon lying there, lifeless all brings back a lot of unpleasant memories. It's all happening so fast, Harry a week ago we knew nothing of all the dangers brewing around, and now, we have death at our hands already." She sighed and kept stroking Rufus' back. He seemed to have fallen asleep in her arms.

"Yes, memories of war seem to be getting pulled out and laid in front of us. We need to talk to Malfoy about what attacked them. They were gone for what like twenty minutes and such horrible injury and death, whoever it was looks very powerful." Harry's voice was bland and he was staring into space while talking. They all knew what they were going up against and death was in the contract but experiencing it real, just seemed worse than they imagined it would feel.

Ginny came up to them, when she saw Harry's face she held his hand, sensing that he was thinking about the war. Harry looked up at her and pulled her into his lap.

"Harry, you don't have to stay here and watch you should go sleep. I know you don't feel okay around such situations." Hermione quirked her eyebrows.

"Harry, what's she talking about?" Harry just looked at her with the same vacant expression on his face. Ginny answered for him.

"He sometimes gets night terrors, and dealing with death makes it worse." She looked at Harry, worried for him.

"Ginny, that's PTSD! Harry, why did you agree to this, you shouldn't have come" Hermione was worried for him now more than before. She had dealt with PTSD after the war too, but she was able to feel better after many therapeutic sessions. Harry never went to see any therapist.

"No, Hermione this has been going for years, it started after the war. And it got worse for a while but working as an Auror, fighting for safety that all helped me somehow, it's just I hadn't dealt with any such deaths in years. The closest I went to death was execution of criminals but that's different. This all, it's so much familiar to the war." Harry sighed, Ginny gave his hand a soft squeeze and put her chin on his head.

"You both should rest, they are almost finished here and we'll do the funeral in a couple of days I guess" Hermione looked over at the casket and then at the sleeping Rufus in her lap.

Just then Ron came towards them. He looked worried too, but then who wouldn't be after the night's events.

"Hey, you guys okay?" He asked them while taking a seat beside Harry.

"Yeah, we were just gonna head back, its getting pretty late too. How are you, Ron?"

"I don't know Gin, our healer is dead on the first day we're here. This feels more dangerous than the last war."

All of them just nodded at him. Harry and Ginny soon got up and went to their room, leaving Ron and Hermione to themselves.

"Hey, Mione I heard Malfoy was pretty badly slashed open" He asked her, turning his chair towards her.

"Mhm" She nodded at him, "He had broken ribs and a wide-open wound on his torso, Oh! Ron it was brutal its a miracle he managed to survive it. The wound looked like it would have killed him on the spot." She looked up at him, worry clearly written all over her face.

"Wouldn't be that much of a tragedy though, who knows maybe Malfoy is the one who attacked Dibbon" Hermione couldn't believe the way he was accusing him, at such a grave time.

"Ron! are you seriously suggesting Malfoy is behind all this!" She half yelled at him.

"What! don't tell me you feel pity for the guy, dude's been a death eater since he was a teenager and that kind of behavior doesn't just go away with a ministry appointed job, and even his job is dangerous, he does Dark Magic Hermione, can't really trust him."

Hermione was furious at him "I can't believe you! Malfoy has been an asset to the ministry for years, a very important one too. And you know he helped Harry on his missions too. He has done much to prove that even if he's a git he doesn't mean any harm to us." Hermione got up unable to look at his face anymore.

"He's got you all fooled Hermione, you Harry even Gin, I don't trust that death eater for a second!" Ron stood up yelling. Hermione didn't have the energy to argue with him anymore, no matter what you say he never seems to see the error of his ways. All these years of rage and hatred, he never grew up from that.

Hermione stormed out of the room, she decided to go see Malfoy once. Halfway through she realized she doesn't know which is his room. As she was heading back to her room, she saw Blaize step out from the room beside her. On seeing her he walked up to her.

"Hey Granger, I just wanna say I'm sorry for yelling at you and doubting your skills" He looked at her, guilt clear on his face.

"It's okay, you were worried for him, is this his room?"

"Yes, he just woke up. You came to see him?" Blaize seemed a bit surprised at her concern but then again, she did literally just save his life.

"Yea, I thought I should check up on him once but I didn't know which is his room, the adjacent one is mine." She pointed at her door.

Blaise raised his eyebrows. "Oh well, go on he's awake now. I'll be going on my way then"

"Yeah sure" She looked back at him, Blaize went down the stairs. She was having second thoughts, visiting Malfoy does seem a bit weird, but she was the one who healed him, plus she used muggle ways so he might need some explaining. Hesitantly she knocked on the door.

"Who is it" Malfoy's voice seemed hoarse.

"Umm, it's Granger" She spoke hesitantly.

"Door's open, come in." She slowly opened the door and stepped inside.

"Well well, what brings the mighty Granger to my room." He smirked at her, her hesitation was very clear by her posture.

"I just came to check up on you, your wounds were pretty nasty." She shrugged.

Draco expected a snarky comment back but was a tad bit surprised to see that she was genuinely concerned. "Well come on see for yourself then." he waved at her to come near.

"The wound has closed and there's no blood, but there's still a lot of pain, I must say Granger you could have made a good healer." Hermione smiled at him. She sat beside his bed and examined the wounds closely. He did seem to heal pretty quickly.

"And you are okay will all the muggle bandages and ointments I used? You didn't scrub them off immediately?"

"Granger must you continue to doubt me. I don't have anything against muggle ways of medication. It saved me why would I get rid of it." He cocked an eyebrow at her. Hermione remembered their conversation from the cafe, she doubted him again and he proved her wrong, yet again.

"Yea you are right, sorry." Draco just nodded at her.

"What was it that attacked you Malfoy. When I was healing you, you believed that you couldn't be saved, you were saying something about the thing that did this to you."

"It was a big hooded figure, with a scythe. Its eyes were glowing silver and the rest of the face was hidden."

"Scythe? Who even uses them?"

"I don't know, the grim ripper perhaps" Draco chuckled at his own words.

"We have to know how it entered the grounds, and what about Dibbon? She was in the west part and you were in the north"

"When I was attacked Granger, for a moment I couldn't move and wasn't able to attack back at it. I don't know why it never killed me. It just wounded me and went away. I managed to send a Patronus to Blaize. I don't know what happened after." Draco's eyes were starting to feel heavy again.

"So, it just wanted to harm you, not kill you off. That's strange." Hermione looked around his room, it was similar to her, but it had more of a dark energy to it, perhaps because the inhabitant was a wizard who practiced Dark Magic.

"Well, that's a mystery to solve another time. I'm tired for now" Draco laid back his head and took a deep breath. Hermione got up to leave. "Okay, take care Malfoy" She said softly and was about to leave the room when her eyes fell on something shiny on the bookshelf. She looked closely, it was the same leather-bound book, she found in her room. She looked back at Malfoy to ask him about it, but he seemed to be too tired, it didn't seem like the appropriate time to enquire more so she let it be and went back to her room.

She went and checked her shelves and the book was still there. "I guess there are copies or maybe it is a different memoir" Nevertheless she didn't put much thought into it. She looked at the time, it was past three in the morning. Slipping into the covers she decided to rest for the remainder of the night, and thus drifted off to sleep.

SO here it is guys, brand new chapter. Also, I would like to point out that the next updating would be a few weeks late as I have my uni exams coming up. Hope you guys will enjoy this particular chapter as it has a hint, the groundwork has started for Dramione.

Anyways love ya guys XOXO

Dracolover21 – Thanks for the kind words, yes, I am pretty sure the story won't be abandoned.