The corridors were dark and half-lit. Draco's eyebrow's furrowed with confusion as she approached him.

"Granger, what are you doing here?"

"Patrol. I switched with Anthony Goldstein— but listen," she said pulling him into a classroom. "I want to show you something."

Unfolding the Marauders Map, she laid it on a desk and tapped her wand to it. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." At once, the detailed plan of Hogwarts appeared, covered in tiny, labeled black dots, most of which were clustered in the common rooms.

"It's a map of the castle, each dot is a person, see, that's us and— OW!"

Draco had grabbed her by her arm, his face looming over hers.

"This is how you've been finding me!" he hissed furiously. "In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, outside the Room of Requirement, you've been spying on me this whole time!"

"It's not like that," she argued. "I was just trying to help—"

"I don't need any help!"

"Yes, you do! You wouldn't even know where the Chamber is without me, and, by the way, you're welcome!"

His angry eyes bore into hers. She was so tired of being at each other's throats. Releasing a deep breath, she whispered, "Draco, you don't have to do everything alone…"

She watched as his grey eyes softened. With a sigh, he slowly let go and looked down at the map. Hermione rubbed where he'd grabbed her, leaving more bruises.

"Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice filled with awe.

"It's Harry's."

He frowned in thought. "And he just let you have it?"

She pursed her lips, reluctant to answer. Looking down at the Map she began to smooth out the parchment ignoring the astounded look on Draco's face. Neither of them spoke and with each passing moment, Hermione felt like she'd just given away a lot more than the map.

After several more moments, he said in a quiet voice, "I don't want it."

Her head snapped up. "What?" She'd practically handed him a pot of gold and he didn't want it?

"Make sure to put it back exactly where you found it so Potter doesn't notice."

"Draco—"

"NO!" he barked, slamming his palm on the desk. "You're not coming with me."

She felt crushed. "I can't believe you still don't trust me! I've never breathed a word to anyone about anything. I could've used the Map to follow you, to find out what you were doing, but I didn't—"

"I know," he swallowed. "I know… and I'm giving it back to you… trusting that you won't follow me there. Trust works both ways. So believe me when I say, the less you know, the better."

"But—"

"Hermione, please…"

His grey eyes were dancing over her face and she was spellbound by them, by the way he'd finally spoken her name again.

"Fine," she whispered. "I won't… but I'll hang on to the map, in case Harry gets any ideas about using it."

His brows furrowed in concern. "Aren't you afraid Potter will find out you've taken it?"

Looking at the floor, she corrected quietly, "I'm more afraid of him finding out why I've taken it."

There was a deafening silence following her confession and Hermione felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment. She raised her eyes slowly to meet his. He glanced away, looking uneasy.

"Let's go," he said clearing his throat. "Theo and MacMillan are on duty too, it's best we split up for the rest of patrol."

Then without giving her another glance he left.

The next night, Hermione drew the curtain around her bed and watched as Malfoy's little black dot disappeared from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Putting the map away she curled up, stroking the bracelet, wondering what was in the Chamber of Secrets he so desperately wanted.

The weekend was upon them and neither Hermione nor Draco had so much as looked at each other, let alone spoken to each other. So, when, midway through Arithmancy, her coin began to burn, she was startled. Glancing around to make sure no one was looking, she took a quick peek at the message.

Library, Ghosts of the Great Lake, 2010

Licking her lips, Hermione quashed the nervous flutter in her stomach.

The rest of the day seemed to drag on and she was grateful when she finally took a seat next to Ginny for dinner. Others joined soon after and then in an instant the Great Hall was filled with the chatter of students and the clink-clink of cutlery. Ginny was in the middle of telling them what they'd been doing recently in Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class when suddenly they heard a commotion coming from the Slytherin table.

Tracey Davis was quarreling so loudly with Draco that the Hall seemed to have gone quiet trying to overhear.

"Look, I'm not an idiot!" she demanded, visibly upset. "Just tell me who it is!"

"Stop," said Pansy in a hushed voice. "You're embarrassing yourself."

Suddenly Tracey's blue eyes were darting between Pansy and Draco as if figuring something out.

"So it's you!" she scoffed in disbelief.

Draco tried calming her, telling her there was nothing going on, but she wouldn't hear of it. Standing up with as much dignity as she had left, she stormed out of the Great Hall.

"What are you all staring at?" spat Pansy challengingly. The silence broke and everyone dropped their gazes, whispering to each other about what they'd just witnessed.

Lavender looked gleeful.

"Well that didn't last long," she chuckled. To her surprise she caught Ron rolling his eyes and playing with his food. Ginny peeped at the Slytherins over her shoulder. "Do you really think he's still hung up over Pansy? That probably wouldn't sit well with Bl—Zabini."

"Suppose not," said Parvati with a little shrug. "But if I had to choose a Slytherin I'd go for Nott. Something about him…"

Hermione stared at her plate while the conversation continued. It hadn't occurred to her till now, but she hadn't seen Draco and Tracey together in the last few days. She raised her eyes tentatively to look at him but he was no longer there.

But Nott was, and his eyes were on hers, glaring at her accusingly.

The intensity of it scared her making her glance away.

Hermione swallowed.

Every time they stood this close it felt like she was seeing him for the first. He was striking. Those eyes, those lips… the angular lines of his face.

"What is it?" she asked waiting expectantly; waiting for him to tell her he wasn't going to see Tracey anymore, that he didn't know what he'd been thinking.

"I," he hesitated, his eyes dancing over her face. "I need your help… you knew Sirius Black, right?"

Something ran cold in her, like ice sliding down her back. Disappointment and anger. His death was still new, still raw and there was so much Malfoy in Draco, that she'd forgotten he was part Black. Hermione couldn't keep the venom out of her voice when she answered.

"Before your aunt killed him… yes."

His eyes burned a hole through her. "I'm not going to apologize for something I didn't do."

Hermione leaned in close and knew if anyone was watching they'd think they were in the middle of an intimate exchange.

"You rarely apologize for your own mistakes," she derided. "Why would you start on behalf of dear Bellatrix?"

Draco's eyes hardened, like water freezing over.

"Maybe there are some things you can't take back, maybe, 'I'm sorry', doesn't cut it."

Her breath left her. They weren't talking about him anymore, they were talking about her, talking about the Veritaserum. It was then that she realized that he was still holding on to it, had only swept it under the rug, because he needed her, but hadn't forgiven her.

She let out a deep sigh. "What about Sirius?"

Then it was his turn to lean in and he was so close, it was tempting.

"Did he ever talk about his brother," he whispered. "Regulus Black?"

She considered not answering just to spite him, because this wasn't what she wanted—to be an accomplice and not a lover.

"A little… he became a Death Eater when he was sixteen and he…he..." She found she couldn't finish the sentence.

"I once overheard my mother ask my father if the Dark Lord had done something to him. She seemed to believe he had."

Hermione was chewing on her lip, considering things. "Sirius thought so too," she admitted. "He told Harry as much, but no one knows for certain..."

And then she saw it; the fear he was trying hard to mask.

"Maybe he ran away Draco," she said grasping at straws. "Maybe he's still alive somewhere, hiding."

He was nodding but it was obvious that he didn't believe her. "I just… I really need to know."

The look on his face had a powerful effect on her. She felt an overwhelming need to comfort him, to protect him and her fingers reached for his. He flinched, stepping back from her. It hurt but she pretended not to notice.

"I'll help you," she offered. "We'll figure it out."

Draco stared at her for several moments and Hermione wondered what would win out, his anger or his desperation.

"Okay," he finally whispered. "Meet me tonight, after ten. I think I know where to start."

They'd been researching for what felt like hours but looking at the clock, had only been forty-five minutes. His eyes drifted, tired and bored, landing on the gold bracelet on Hermione's wrist. She was still wearing it and he felt foolish for not realizing what it meant. Draco asked himself when it had started for her. Was it when they'd spent New Years together, was it the bracelet that had seduced her… was it him, his mouth, his tongue?

I'm more afraid of him finding out why I've taken it.

She'd helped him, lied for him, stolen from Potter for him… she'd come for him, screamed his name—

He blinked, realizing Hermione had been watching him stare and he quickly glanced back to the text in front of him.

"We should also check the articles that were released in the Prophet," he said casually. "There might be something there."

There was no answer and when he raised his head again she was watching him with a solemn expression.

"Don't you miss me at all?"

He felt his throat constrict and looked back down again. The letters blurring into one another.

"Draco, that night, I—"

"I'm almost done with this one," he said abruptly cutting her off. "We'll swap in a minute."

Hermione sighed, her voice wavering as she whispered, "Do you think about it?"

Did he think about it? Yes. Did he want to talk about it or any other night she was referring to? No. So he decidedly ignored her, flipping the page. Before he knew what was happening Hermione had grabbed the book from his hand and flung it hard against the wall. He flinched his eyes widening in surprise. She looked calm, which was even more frightening because it could only mean that inside she was seething. Hermione Granger had just thrown a book... a book.

"How can you be so cold and unforgiving?"

"Look," he tried saying quietly. "Just calm down."

"We're going to talk about this."

"The last time you wanted to talk about something I didn't have much of a choice in responding," he snapped back. Sensing the wrong direction things were taking, he got up, muttering about all of this having been a bad idea and began to put everything away.

Hermione grabbed her wand and cast a spell he didn't recognize at the door. Draco raised a questioning eyebrow at her. He walked to it slowly and tried opening it, tugging on the handle.

Locked, he scoffed, of course.

He took out his wand and muttered Alohomora but it didn't work. Just what the hell—

"I knew you were using this room…"

He tried using sheer force but it was sealed tight.

"I needed to know," she stuttered. "I needed to know what you were doing in here—"

He shook his head, trying to shake off her words and made one last futile effort yanking on the door.

Hermione sighed. "I'm not unlocking it till you speak to me."

He swiveled around his jaw clenched. If she wanted to play, then he'd play. Sitting down on the couch Draco folded his arms. He'd mastered this game having played it with his parents several times growing up. The last time he'd played had been the first time he went to visit his father in Azkaban.

Catching on, Hermione plonked back down on the armchair opposite him and folded her arms.

Of course, she'd rise to the challenge. Stupid. Little. Gryffindor.

He only had to glare at her in silence for a minute before she cracked. She jumped from her chair.

"Draco, please," she pleaded. "I was scared, I had to know what you were doing and I didn't trust you to tell me the truth. How long are you going to punish me for one mistake? It's not fair—"

"Fair?" he spat, unable to hold his temper. "My father is in Azkaban, my mother is hostage to the Dark Lord, I have a death sentence on my head and the last person I ever believed to be capable of doing something so underhanded and low, drugged me—!"

"I know," she choked on the verge of tears and suddenly she was climbing onto his lap and her hands were running all over him and her body was warm and he was drowning in her scent.

"I had to be sure," she explained. "I had to be, you almost… we both know what you did…"

He tried to look away from her, burning with the shame of what he'd done to Katie Bell but Hermione was holding his face, her stare unrelenting. "I'm not asking you to confess," she said quickly. "I'm just asking you to let me in again."

Let her in? No, no, no, fuck no. He couldn't.

"It wasn't real Granger..." he said wrenching his face from her grasp, wanting to hurt her enough to get her away. "How could it have ever been when I've only ever wanted you from afar? You were just forbidden. That's what I thought I was in love with… the idea of Hermione Granger."

She stared at him, expressionless. "You don't mean that," she said finally and then to his horror he began to feel the heat of her palms flat against his chest, as she rubbed up and down. Her hands slid up his shoulders, touching the skin at the collar of his jumper, clutching to his neck. "You don't," she echoed, burying her face in the crevice of his neck. "You're just being cruel…"

His mind was screaming at him to just push her off, but his body wouldn't cooperate.

Then her lips were pressed against his collarbone. The contact burned him. She began kissing a trail up his neck and along his jaw. Draco closed his eyes and his head lolled back, he didn't want to let go of the anger but he could feel it slipping away. It was her presence; her body heat, the pleading tone, he was weak against all of it. Her nose lightly brushed his, like she was dipping her toes into water to see if it was warm enough to take the plunge. And he knew this but was too tired to care.

It was exhausting pretending not to be in love with Hermione Granger once he realized he irrevocably was.

She sighed his name against his mouth and kissed him, slow and tentative, one hand fisting his hair.

He kissed her back, surrendering, and everything else seemed to fade like the world had gone mute.

It was nothing like the first time, it was soft and timid, like her. Restraining himself he allowed her to lead. He found he much preferred being kissed by her than kissing her, to feel her desire instead of his own. As the kiss deepened she became restless, squirming impatiently on top of him. She nipped and sucked his bottom lip, moving her tongue against his to taste him and the sensation pulsed through his entire body waking him. He could feel himself hardening beneath her heat. She sighed into his mouth again. His hold on her tightened, digging his fingers into her skin. He gripped her hips pushing up into her and he hadn't meant to, hadn't meant to lose that restraint so quickly.

Pathetic, that's what he was, pathetic and weak for her.

He broke the kiss. Angry with himself for allowing her to coax him into forgetting.

"I can't," he said shaking his head.

Hermione still had her hand in his hair and he was still hard.

"You can… it can't feel like this and not be real."

Draco was trying to untangle himself from her and those words. He couldn't think when she was like this and she knew because she clutched to him pressing her body and lips back against him. Her tongue tried to lure him out. She ground her hips into his and he groaned into her mouth.

She was manipulating him, seducing him into forgiving her and it was working. But there were all those other reasons why they couldn't and he knew he should stop... but then she bit down hard on his lip and he felt his blood run hot like fever and her hands were under his clothes all over his skin and her hips were tormenting him.

Then they were undressing each other and before he knew what he was doing he was on top of her and she was bare-chested; her body begging to be touched.

His mouth fell on hers and he couldn't remember how he got there like he'd got drunk off her and blacked out. Her body was trembling and he felt every tremor, her nipples brushing against his chest. He worried all her shaking would wake him up from his dreaming because he must've fallen asleep here like he had last night… This wasn't really happening.

But then he heard her say, "Draco, touch me." And he raised his eyes to meet hers, to wake up, because Hermione couldn't possibly be saying these things to him. Not now, when it had become too dangerous to even think of doing this.

But then she repeated it a second time and the words echoed in his mind sounding like fucking music.

"Where?" he breathed.

Her cheeks flushed as she took his hand from her breast and put it high on her thigh. His eyes roamed over her half-naked form as he hitched her skirt up high around her waist. His fingers traced her white knickers, the cotton stretched over her sex. She was wet and his cock twitched with the knowledge of it.

Hermione whimpered, biting her lip and he thought that every time she did, she should have house points deducted. She was a dirty little Gryffindor.

He slid his hand underneath the material and stroked her once over the clit. She whimpered again and the sound made Draco greedy for more. Without a word, he slid his finger into her opening. She let out a gasp, her fingers digging into him and he knew he should've asked, or said something but it was happening again. That inability to stop and he had to silence the voice that told him to bind her hands again. Her walls were tight and he imagined them gripping his cock, holding him in her. He began moving in and out gently.

She whined and Draco couldn't tell if it was in pain or pleasure. He asked if it was okay and she nodded, her eyes glazing over.

Hermione hummed against his skin. "Just like that," she moaned pulling him back to her mouth and kissing him in a frenzy. He moved his thumb against her clit. She moaned and it echoed all the way down to his groin. He did it again a little harder and she gasped, biting down hard on his bottom lip. It stung and it was strange how much she seemed to like drawing blood.

He slowly devoured her neck and soon learned that the gentler he was, the more impatient she became. He kissed a slow path to her chest and caught her nipple in his mouth. She moaned, holding his head to her breast and he could feel the slightest tightening around his finger.

"God… Draco," her head lolled back. The sounds falling from her parted lips weren't the delicate cries he'd imagined. They were unrestrained, pleading and desperate. He could come just listening to them… he could come just looking at her.

Would she mind if he did that, would she let him? He'd come on her breasts, or just in the slight valley between them… or below her stomach… maybe in her—

Fuck.

He couldn't bear it any longer. His entire body was in a nervous state of excitement.

He slipped out of her and rose to his knees.

"No," she whined. "Don't stop."

But he had to, just for a moment.

She sat up on her elbows, her chest rising and falling, eagerly waiting for him to return to touching her.

His fingers toyed with the hem of his sweatpants. Clenching his jaw, he slowly pushed them down over his erection and onto the floor.

Hermione's gaze dropped to his hard length and he felt his cheeks burn as she appraised him. He was relieved when she finally raised her eyes back to his, chewing her lips furiously.

He wrapped his hand around his cock and began stroking at an excruciatingly slow pace. Her eyes squeezed shut as if she wasn't meant to see.

"No," he said and he didn't know where the words came from. "I want you to watch."

She slowly lifted her gaze back to him and he was so grateful to her; as if her beautiful brown eyes on him was a fucking gift.

It's what he wanted; to have them dilate and blacken, to have her lick her lips and leave a thin wet film. To just have her stare at him, to have each other burned into memory. He studied her, her hair wild, her chest heaving, her skirt pushed up and her knickers damp.

He groaned.

She rubbed her legs together, ashamed and aroused.

He wanted her to feel what he was feeling.

Using his free hand, he teased her clit. Instinctively her legs stretched wider and he pressed a little harder over her knickers. She fell back, her hips gyrating against his hand, moaning, and he wondered how close she'd been when he stopped earlier. Maybe, maybe they could come together, but… it was so difficult...so difficult to concentrate.

Whimpering in frustration she gently moved his hand away.

He watched as she slipped her own underneath the cotton fabric.

And Draco couldn't believe that he had Gryffindor's little princess touching herself beneath him, her eyes locked on his, her lips parted and singing.

His free hand explored her body. He had to keep touching her to make sure she was real.

Hermione's back arched up into his palms as he cupped her breast.

He clenched his teeth, trying to last longer but even as he slowed down he could feel himself on the edge of climax.

Oh Merlin, did he need to ask her if he could finish on her, or was it a given that he would?

His mind was spiraling, he couldn't think. He was so close… he was—

"Fuck," he choked. "I'm going to come."

She never answered because just then her back arched again and she was moaning. Her head thrown back and her neck stretched long.

A few more strokes and his entire body shuddered as he followed, spilling white semen all over her. He growled as the last of him emptied out on her stomach and skirt, and he thought he'd faint from the intensity of his orgasm.

He could barely hold himself up and he half collapsed onto her.

They were both panting, coming down from the euphoric lust-induced haze they'd been under.

A minute later when their heavy breathing subsided, he raised his head, his eyes sweeping over her.

Hers were half-closed and he wished they could both stay here tonight. He memorized her; her hair in disarray, her cheeks flush, her body half covered in a film of sweat and cum. There was something he loved about seeing her in this disheveled, tainted state, ruined to the point of having no other wizard ever desiring to touch her.

And he'd begun to do that hadn't he— taint her? There were traces of him everywhere.

He picked up his wand from the table and cast a cleaning charm on them.

It was a little awkward. There were no words to describe what they'd just done except he knew it had felt absolutely dirty. Yet he didn't care… in fact, he found he wanted to do it again, and again, the same despicable voice urging him like it had the last time.

She began to sit up and redress so he did the same, which was unfortunate. There was no look more flattering on her than when she was naked. But then he noticed that she wasn't just redressing, she was closing herself off, running away just like she had the last time.

He grabbed her wrists as they were shakily trying to button her shirt.

"Stop it," he ordered. "You're not going to do this again."

Hermione's eyes were downcast avoiding his gaze and it fucking hurt that she couldn't look at him.

"What?" he challenged, becoming angry.

She yanked her hands out of his grip without a word and went back to dressing.

"Talk to me," he commanded.

Without looking at him she said in a quiet voice. "I didn't mean for it to go that far."

"Yes you did—" She was shaking her head furiously from side to side denying it. "—You knew exactly what you were doing and you loved every fucking minute of it."

Her eyes were swelling with tears and he suddenly grew frightened because he didn't understand why she was doing this, why she was trying to keep up the pretense. He cupped her face willing her to look up at him.

"Why are you pretending you weren't there?" asked Draco.

Hermione stared at him, through damp eyelashes.

"I don't know what came over me, I've never done that before," she whispered and then in her fumbling she tore a button and all hell broke loose. "Look at what you've done Draco Malfoy," she said shoving him. "You've ruined everything! I hope you're happy now!"

"Ecstatic!" he screamed back.

Throwing her hands in the air she was ranting about all the mean things he'd done to her, to Potter, to Weasley, to Hagrid, hell, to Longbottom, then she was saying he was loathsome, spoilt and vile and pointed out that he'd called her nothing but a Mudblood for the last five years and before he could stop himself it just slipped out.

"At least I was right to call you filthy."

Her mouth fell open as her face went brick red with anger.

"And how does it feel to lower yourself to touching a filthy Mudblood?" she spat back at him.

"Fucking good," he rasped, looking her up and down. "I've never come so hard." Then for good measure, he fisted her hair and kissed her, effectively shutting her up. She moaned into his mouth, wrapping her hands around his neck as his tongue swept over hers.

They broke apart panting, their foreheads touching.

"What are we doing?" she asked breathlessly.

"I don't know," he said rubbing the tip of his nose against hers. "Do you want to keep doing it?"

"God, yes."

His skin was on fire. She'd just confirmed what he'd known the moment he watched her come undone underneath him; that they'd keep doing this, over and over and over again until it killed them.

He was a dead man anyway, but he could still hide her. As long as no one knew, she'd be safe.

"Hermione…" he said, knowing full well this wasn't something any girl wanted to hear, especially after what they'd just done, but she needed to know. "No one can know. No one."

He braced himself.

But she just sighed, her eyes closing.

"I know… but, it's not forever, right?"

He pursed his lips because he wasn't entirely sure he had forever, or a year, or a month, or maybe he did have forever, in Azkaban.

Without voicing the truth, he said, "Come on, we better head back to the dormitories."

Later that night, when he was alone in his bed, he wished they could've stayed in that little room forever.

A/N: I'm looking for a beta-reader. Let me know if anyone is interested. Just to sort of leaf through for grammar/spelling mistakes/glaring errors. Thanks, hope everyone is having a great day x