AN: Hello again! I know it's been a couple of weeks. A reviewer asked me what my posting schedule is. The answer is that I don't have one. I try to post once a week, if life allows for it. I work two jobs and spent the last month using every spare moment working on a project car with my husband. The good news is the car is done and we made it to the Tri Five Nationals this weekend - which has been our goal.

Writing, editing and posting is a hobby that I fit in when I can. It's what I do to unwind and unwrap. I won't put myself on a schedule because then it wouldn't be fun or relaxing anymore, it would be another deadline and source of anxiety. I hope you all understand.

I appreciate all of you reading and reviewing. I promise again not to leave you hanging. This story is done, I am just editing as I update. Big love to my beta Bex, and prayers for her as she recovers from the covid.

Also, another reviewer said that my characters were painfully OOC. I prefer to think of them as growing from the children they were into the young adults that they will be. ;) Semantics.

Lost Souls of Nott Castle

Chapter 12 - Hidden Threats

Hermione awoke slowly. Her mind savoring the memories of the previous evening. It took her a long moment to realize that she wasn't sleeping in a bed. Whatever she was lying on was warm, and safe, and breathing steadily.

Her eyes snapped open.

Rain was still pouring down on the domed roof, but the sky was a lighter gray, which told her morning had arrived.

Draco was still sleeping soundly beneath her. She took a moment to look at him. He looked so peaceful. So handsome.

Carefully, she rolled over and stretched her muscles. She sat up on the edge of the chair they had been sleeping on. Movement caught her eye and she turned quickly. That's when she saw Blaise asleep in one chair, and Theo sitting up in the other.

"Nice dress, Granger." He said with a smirk on his face.

She looked down at her now very wrinkled dress and saw that the hem was riding high on her thigh.

"Thanks, Theo." She said with an embarrassed laugh as she readjusted the fabric.

Draco stirred behind her and sat up as well.

"So. Nothing going on between you two, right?" Theo's smirk was more of a grin now. He was thoroughly enjoying this.

"Shut it, mate." Draco grumbled as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back against him. He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled deeply.

"Good morning, Princess," he whispered in her ear. A shiver of electricity seeped down her spine.

She turned and kissed him, not caring at all that Theo was watching.

"Alright, seriously. Get a room, you two." Blaise grumbled as he sat up as well.

"Don't worry, Blaise. I'm going." She laughed as she stood up and stretched her arms over her head. "I need to clean up and change anyway."

"I'll walk you down." Draco stood up behind her and cracked the bones in his neck. He followed her down the narrow stairway to the potions lab, then down the main staircase to the living quarters.

She turned around and faced him when they were standing in front of her door.

"I had a wonderful time last night," she told him.

"Me too." He caressed her face before pulling her in for a heart-stopping, toe curling kiss.

The kisses they had shared the night before were tame compared to the way his lips moved against hers. His tongue swept across and she opened easily, welcoming the sensation of his tongue dancing against hers. Their breathing seemed to synchronize as his hands spread across her back and pulled her in closer.

She was surrounded by him, drowning in him. It was the most incredible feeling she had ever experienced. It took every ounce of self control that she possessed to slowly pull away. She took a deep shaky breath as she stepped away from him.

He mirrored her, taking a deep breath and stepping back. Then he smirked down at her.

A smile spread across her face.

"See you at breakfast, Malfoy," she told him before opening her door and disappearing into her rooms.

When the door closed behind her, she smiled to herself. Her fingers drifted across her swollen lips and she moved through the room on cloud nine.

An hour later, she had taken a shower and dressed in black pants and a lavender sweater. She hummed to herself as she tied her hair into a loose messy bun at the nape of her neck. When she made her way downstairs, she found her three housemates were waiting for her.

They were all in the dining room eating breakfast when an owl swooped in and dropped a letter in her lap, then left just as quickly.

She picked it up and saw her name printed neatly on one side in Harry's handwriting.

Her heart fell. After seeing him the day before, she really didn't want to hear from him so soon. She had said what she needed to say to him and now she just wanted him to give her space so she could start to heal from his betrayal.

"Hermione?" Draco asked.

She looked up and saw that they were all watching her.

"It's from Harry." She sighed deeply and opened it, placing the contents on the table in front of her.

"What the hell?" She asked out loud as she looked at the picture that was on top.

It was a picture of Draco and herself at the bookstore the previous day. She had her arms around his neck and he was holding her close. Then she looked up at him. It was the moment when he had asked her out and she accepted.

She watched the image play over and over again. The look in his eyes made her heart pound a little harder. If she had any doubt at all about his feelings for her, she had only to look at that picture. It was plain as day. Anyone would have seen it.

She forced her eyes away from the image and settled them on the parchment that came along with it.

'Ron was right all along. You are sleeping with the enemy. Now I know why you testified for him. Why he was there at the bookstore. Why you turned me down. He doesn't deserve you. You belong by my side. If I can't have you, no one else can either. Especially not him. When you come to your senses, you know where to find me.'

She sat there, frozen. Shock and anger were warring for dominance.

Draco took the parchment from her hand and read it out loud so Theo and Blaise could hear it too. Listening to it was even worse than reading it.

Anger finally won out. She stood up quickly and stormed out of the dining room. The three men she left behind looked at each other apprehensively. They seemed to realize all at the same time that she had left the room.

"Hermione?" Draco followed her to the sitting room and grabbed her arm just as she was reaching for the floo powder. "Where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going? I'm going to wring his neck. Seriously! How dare he!" She was absolutely livid.

"Look, Princess. I get it." He said as he led her away from the hearth. "There are a few choice curses I'd like to hurl at the man myself. But I can't because I don't want either of us to go to Azkaban."

"Hermione," Theo said from the doorway. "I'm sure the Gryffindor thing to do is to go off half cocked and rush in blindly. This isn't the time for heroics."

She pulled her arm free from Draco's loose grasp and folded her arms over her chest.

"He can't just tell me who I can or cannot see!" She looked around the room at the three of them. She saw varying degrees of anger, worry and disbelief. "Who the hell does he think he is!"

Draco mirrored her stance, crossing his arms over his chest and blocking her way to the hearth.

"He thinks he's the fucking Chosen One that can get away with anything. He just threatened your life, and your plan is to, what? Go to his house and yell at him?" His own anger simmered right below the surface, evident in the hard edges of his voice. "That's exactly what he wants you to do."

Her eyes narrowed and her head tilted to the side as she listened to what he was saying. It didn't make sense to her, though. She turned to look at Theo, then Blaise. They were watching her, waiting to see what she would do next.

She swallowed thickly and turned back to face Draco.

"What do you mean," she asked him carefully. "He threatened my life?"

He lifted an eyebrow. After a few seconds of tense silence, he summoned the parchment from where he had left it on the dining room table. It sailed gently into his outstretched hand. He glanced at it quickly, then handed it to her.

"Read it again," he told her.

She unfolded the parchment and slowly re-read it.

'If I can't have you, no one else can either. Especially not him.'

Huh. Son of a bitch.

Her eyebrows crinkled.

She read it again.

Draco was right.

Her heart stopped for one agonizing moment.

He had threatened her. Harry Potter. Her best friend since she was eleven years old. The boy she had stood behind, risked her life for, and fought beside in battle.

Her legs suddenly felt weak. Her heart had kicked up a notch and was beating so hard she could hear it, feel it, pulling throughout her body. Her hands trembled. Slowly, she sank down to sit on the loveseat.

Her eyes darted over the words again.

Draco took a tentative step towards her, then another, until he was standing in front of her. He sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Fine. I won't go there." She relented. Then she sighed and leaned back against Draco's shoulder. "He would never hurt me though. Right?"

No one answered her and her stomach sank. She took several deep breaths, willing her heart to slow down to a normal speed while Draco held her.

"Does anyone know that you're staying here?" Theo asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the room.

"No. I haven't told anyone." She answered.

"Me either," Blaise affirmed.

"Okay. Good. You are safe here, then." Theo assured her. "The only people that can get through the wards are in this room."

"Don't open any mail you get. Not without protections." Draco insisted. "It would be nice if we could make this place unplottable, that way your location couldn't be traced either."

"This is ridiculous." She put her head in her hands.

"I hate to say it, but when word gets out about you two, there are going to be more people upset by it than just Potter." Blaise speculated. "If we could figure out how to make it unplottable, that would probably be a good thing to do all around."

Hermione lifted her head off of Draco's shoulder and turned to look at him. Their eyes locked together. They both knew that Blaise was right.

"Fuck them," Draco told her. She released the breath she had been holding in a rush of air followed by a small laugh at his response.

"Theo?" She asked without looking away from Draco. "Do you have any books upstairs on unplottable wards?"

Draco smirked down at her, then leaned in and kissed her.

"I guess we'll find out, yeah?" Theo answered her. He was sure she was not listening very well, though. Not with Draco's tongue down her throat.

After a few minutes, she pulled back and took a deep breath. Her hands were still in his hair. One of his hands was spread out across her back. The other was resting on her upper thigh, dangerously close to her arse.

Slowly, she untangled herself and stood up. Only then did she realize that Theo and Blaise were no longer in the room.

"Come on, Princess." Draco pushed her towards the door. "Time for your favorite thing in the world - research."

She laughed and let him guide her to the stairs.

"You know, that really is my favorite thing to do. Maybe I could make a career out of that somehow?"

"That would be perfect."

As they climbed the stairs, Hermione started feeling foolish for the way she was ready to storm over to Harry's house and confront him. What would he have done if she had gone? Was he waiting for her, planning to somehow keep her away from Draco?

Merlin! It was possible! If it hadn't been for Draco standing up to her, stopping her from doing something foolish, then who knows what could have happened.

Her steps faltered until she came to a stop altogether. Draco stopped as soon as he realized she was no longer moving and turned to look at her.

"I just wanted to say thank you," she told him. "For stopping me."

"Someone has to keep your Gryffindor bravery in check, Granger." He smirked at her and winked. Then he took her hand in his and pulled her along to the library.

They found Theo and Blaise already there. They all split up and started searching the shelves for anything they could find on wards.

Draco watched her as she worked. The way her fingertips skimmed over the titles. The way she chewed on her bottom lip. The way she pushed her hair back or twirled a lock of hair around her finger. When she was concentrating.

"Mate, you've got it bad." Blaise chuckled over his shoulder.

"I don't know what she could possibly see in me." He responded, not even trying to deny it anymore. Something had shifted inside of him at some point over the past few weeks. Something that told him she was his destiny.

"It isn't your winning personality, that's for sure!" He clapped him on the back and laughed at his own joke.

"Whatever it is, don't fuck it up." Theo interjected from behind them. "You'll never find anyone else like her."

He knew that truer words had never been spoken.

"Are you guys going to help, or are you just going to stand there staring at my arse all day?" She turned around and put her hand on her hip, but Draco could tell she was trying not to smile.

"Don't blame us," Blaise told her, holding his hands up in surrender. "It isn't our fault you have such a nice arse."

Theo and Draco laughed, but quickly jumped out of the way as she sent a hex their way. Blaise' legs collapsed out from under him and he fell to the floor, laughing all the way.

Draco made his way across the room to where she was standing and leaned against the bookcase next to her.

"Now that Blaise mentioned it, you really do have a nice arse." He said with a smirk.

"That's very sweet of you. And Blaise." She responded with a laugh.

"Come on. We've been at it for hours. Let's take a break. Get something to eat. Then we'll keep looking."

She sighed, but couldn't disagree with his logic. The sound of her stomach growling sealed it.

"Okay. A break won't hurt anything."

She followed him out to the balcony where Theo's elves had set up some sandwiches, tea, and chocolate cauldron cakes on a long table.

The storm that had settled down earlier was picking up speed again. Clear dividers now covered the balcony to keep the rain out.

They sat there, watching the storm and munching on their food. As soon as she was finished eating, she went back inside.

"You know we are supposed to meet Pansy and Daphne at the club again tonight," Theo reminded them. "They'll get suspicious if we don't show.'

"You two go on. They won't even notice that I'm not there." Draco told them.

"And if they do?" Blaise asked.

"Tell them I had a date." He rolled his eyes.

"Like they'll believe that." Theo laughed.

He could see his friend's point. His date the night before with Hermione had been his first real date with anyone. He hadn't had time for all that at Hogwarts. He was too busy trying to stay alive.

They finished eating and went back inside to keep looking. Hermione was sitting at the table with a large tome in front of her skimming through the pages.

"Find anything?" He asked as he leaned over the back of her chair.

"Not really," she answered without taking her eyes off the book.

"We will." He squeezed her shoulder gently, then returned to the stacks to keep looking.

AN: Some of you were already suspicious of Harry. What do you think?