Hermione's morning was going rather well. That should have been the first sign something was about to ruin it, though. She should have known there was no peace in Hogwarts. When Snape approached their table and stopped right in front of her, half the people in the Great Hall hushed. "Miss Granger, my office. Now," he said, with his blank voice.

Hermione almost started hyperventilating when she figured the only reason he would want to see her alone was the Dark Lord. She cleared her throat and followed him out, without a word. The road to the Headmaster's office was long and quiet.

Once they both entered the circular room, the only sound was Phineas Nigellus Black acknowledging her with a, "You again?" which she ignored. Hermione sat down, forcing herself not to look at Dumbledore's painting.

"I suppose you know why you're here?" Snape asked.

"What are the new orders?" She went straight to the point and decided she wouldn't stay in that office a minute more than necessary.

"There's a base of the Order in muggle London, protected by a Fidelius Charm. Albus Dumbledore was the Secret Keeper, I'm sure you know how the charm works and what happened when he died."

Hermione stopped herself from flinching and took a deep breath. She couldn't speak of Grimmauld Place unless they had captured someone crucial. "What are you implying?" She asked, trying to gain more time to think.

"That you are now a Secret Keeper," he spelled very slowly. "Tell me where it is."

"Can't you just ask Dumbledore?"

"You think I didn't try?" The disgust in his voice was clear.

She knew his painting was watching her. She could feel it on her skin. She had to answer, or she'd burn months of work. But something felt wrong about the whole situation. Who could have they taken that knew about the Fidelius Charm? Moody, Mundungus, Tonks, Lupin, Sirius, Harry and Ron were dead. She wasn't sure Andromeda Tonks knew about it and, if they had captured and tortured one of the Weasleys, she was pretty sure Ginny would have made it her priority to let her know she considered her responsible.

Luna didn't know and she strongly doubted Blaise knew. Hagrid? No, he had run away with the Giants. McGonagall knew, but she was dead sure she would have never told the Death Eaters anything. Which meant Snape had to be testing her.

"It's the Blacks' family mansion. Harry inherited it from Sirius," she said. She avoided telling him the precise address, since she was – obviously – a secret keeper, but that seemed to be enough for him.

Snape's eyes seemed to smile, for some odd reason, and she heard Phineas Nigellus mutter something about how his family's secrets were being spilled to everyone willing to listen.

"Can I go now? I don't want to miss class."

Snape nodded absentmindedly, so she just grabbed her bag and left the office. Instead of running down the stairs, when she closed the door she stopped right there and listened.

"I told you, Albus. You precious Mudblood is a traitor. It's not like she had a choice, I'll give you that, but I suppose it's all part of your Gryffindor pride," Snape scorned. Dumbledore was doubting her loyalty to the Dark Lord, that had to be it.

"Or, maybe, she just knows you're loyal to me. And, please, do refrain from using such epithet in my presence," the portrait answered.

Hermione was almost afraid of what that meant. Snape, a double agent, fooling them all.

"And not use it in her favor? The girl's more Slytherin than you think. You're wrong, Albus, you just don't want to admit it."

"She can't be that changed, Severus. This is radical."

"I'll bring your painting with me next time she's on a mission so you can see for yourself," he sighed, "You always see the good in everyone, now you're dead because of it."

"You're also a part of the Order because of it."

Feeling that the conversation was coming to an end, Hermione quickly left and headed to the dungeons, where she was supposed to meet Theo after breakfast, as Professor Vector was ill and Advanced Arithmancy had been cancelled. She had heard enough.

Albus Dumbledore had been testing her all along. Severus Snape was loyal to the Order of the Phoenix and knew about Grimmauld Place without her telling him. He had killed Dumbledore, he couldn't actually be loyal to him – she reasoned. But, at the same time, Dumbledore was prone to sacrifice himself, Harry had been a living proof of that.

Her head was a labyrinth of thoughts as she headed back to the common room, and then she really did believe she had gone insane. She believed it, because that was Harry, standing there. It was his face, looking at her with those betrayed eyes of his. Hermione's sight became blurry. When she tried to take a step forward, though, he disappeared. She ran to the point she'd seen him, but there was nothing there, or maybe there never was.

"I am just tired," she whispered, "I am not crazy."

She was really not, it was just the tiredness caused by her sleepless night. The key to success was believing it. Hermione leaned on the wall for support and took a few deep breaths, before walking back to the common room. In the dungeons, only lighted up by a few torches now and then, Hermione found Theo with his head in his hands, laid on a couch under the portrait of Salazar Slytherin.

"Daphne told me," she said and sat on the chess table in front of his sofa.

"And what do you think about it?" He looked at her.

She took a deep breath. "I think you need to talk and figure things out. This is no good for any of you."

Theo half laughed half snorted. "Have you and Draco been shaking hands on it or what?"

"What do you mean?" She frowned.

"He told me the same thing, yesterday. He was the one to convince me to do it."

"I didn't know. What can I do?" Seeing the funny, lazy and sometimes jerky Theo like that only made her sad. And, after the last twenty minutes, she could barely stand it.

He was the only one, besides Daphne, who hadn't given a damn about her blood from the very beginning and, as much as she didn't care about blood status either, it was nice to know that someone in his position, with a Death Eater father, could disregard blood prejudice so easily when the act wasn't necessary to stay alive.

"Nothing, unless you can get into her head. But thanks," he smiled and an idea popped into her mind.

"What if I could get you into her head? Meet me in my room tonight, after dinner."

"Why?" He asked, and eyed her suspiciously.

"You'll see," she smirked.

The waiting was killing him. Draco just had to know why Snape wanted to see Granger, what the Dark Lord's plans were and why he didn't want to see him as well. Having the first two hours free, he'd decided to borrow Blaise's broom and have a round on the Quidditch pitch, chasing some Snitches to release the tension. He was standing at the entrance of the Ancient Runes classroom now, waiting for her, the double Transfiguration they had together next being his excuse.

Shortly after the bell rang, he saw Granger walk past him in the hall, not noticing him, so he ran up to her, grabbed her arm and turned both of them around.

"What are you doing? Let go of me!" She hissed but he ignored her and walked her to an empty classroom.

"What did he tell you?" He snapped, finally letting her go.

"Who are you talking about?" She grimaced and rubbed her arm.

"Snape. What did he tell you?" He repeated, starting to lose his patience.

"He only needed to locate a base, chill," she scowled, "I would have told you in Transfiguration, there was no need to be so dramatic about it."

"Really?" His voice was full of sarcasm.

"Really. What's wrong with you?" Granger frowned and took a step back.

"What were you and Daphne mumbling about, this morning?" he changed the subject, trying to calm down.

"Girl talk," she stated, but he knew she was lying. He looked for the signs, but there was nothing. If he didn't know better, he would have fallen for it. She was looking straight into his eyes, not glancing away, and her voice was calm as ever. He hated it. "We're late for class. Or do you have more interrogation to do?"

"We're not going to be late." He rolled his eyes and opened the door, waiting for her to get out and closing it back behind him.

"The Transfiguration class is on the ground floor, we're on sixth and the stairs like moving. We already are late," she was shaking her head and storming to the nearest staircase. Draco sighed and followed her. Of course, they got to Transfiguration last, and he earned himself a glare from both Granger and McGonagall.

Hermione heard a knock on the door and looked at the muggle alarm she had on her desk.

It was nine o'clock sharp, so it had to be Theo for sure. Never, ever, would Daphne Greengrass be on time. She opened the door and smiled at him.

"Just so you know, I'm not really down for dark magic, regardless of my oh-so-light background," was the first thing he said.

Hermione blinked a few times and shook her head. "What the hell, Theo."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes and invited him to come in, ignoring his question. "Give me your wand," she said and stre2tched her arm. Theo looked like he'd figured out there was something wrong. "Why?"

"Because I put up with her every day and I barely manage not to hex her sometimes, so I'm not having my room destroyed by the two of you."

He sighed and gave her his wand. Theo knew Daphne well enough to know she was right. Hermione just smiled and opened the door again when she heard a loud knocking, surprised her friend was actually – kind of – on time.

She didn't give her enough time to look into the room and asked, "Hi, will you lend me your wand for a second? I can't find mine." Daphne frowned but handed it to her nonetheless.

Hermione smiled again and opened the door wider so she could get in, then admired both pair of eyes landing on her, disconcerted.

"I'll be back tomorrow morning," she explained. "You're welcome."

Hermione left the room and locked the door so they couldn't open it without magic, then made her way to the common room.

"Granger, how come you dignify us with your presence?" Pansy Parkinson asked, surprisingly nice at any time of the day.

"For the same reason you insist on imposing yours on us, I guess." She sat next to Malfoy on a couch and stole a Chocolate Frog from him, with a slight groan from him in response.

She crossed her legs and took a bite from it, as Blaise chuckled, trying to cover it with a cough. A Slytherin boy sitting nearby only smiled.

"You're hilarious," Pansy smiled such a fake smile she had a feeling it would crack her face.

"Can't say the same for you," she murmured and looked at the card she'd got with the chocolate. It was Dumbledore. The Slytherin boy she didn't recognize laughed at that, and Draco smirked.

"Granger, he's Miles Bletchley and she," he nodded at a black-haired girl sitting next to him, "Is his girlfriend, Tracey Davis."

"Nice to meet you both," she smiled in response. If anything, they seemed nice.

"It's our pleasure," the girl, Tracy, answered and smiled back.

A few hours later, when everyone but her retired to their rooms to get some sleep, Hermione just stared at the door of her bedroom, mentally cursing herself. She should have locked them up somewhere she wasn't supposed to sleep.

She refused to share the room with Pansy for the night and there was no way she was sleeping with the boys in Theo's room. Realizing she was left with little to no choice, she groaned and turned around, then knocked on the door in front of her own.

A few seconds later, Draco Malfoy opened the door, with only his sweatpants on, looking quite confused.

"Can I help you?" He managed to say.

She cleared her throat and looked away. "I've locked Daphne and Theo up in my room a few hours ago, and I didn't really think of the consequences. Can I stay here tonight?"

"Sure." He opened the door to for her and she walked into the room. "I owe you, after all the times at the Manor."

The atmosphere was awkward. To say the least. So awkward, in fact, that Hermione was taking into serious consideration asking Pansy if she could stay in their room for the night.

"Do you want something to sleep in?" He asked, nodding at her uniform.

Hermione looked at herself too and sighed. Bloody Daphne Greengrass and her bloody spell-proof uniform. She nodded without looking at him and watched as he turned around a took a dress shirt form his closet, then handed to her. Hermione guessed Draco Malfoy didn't really own t-shirts, as any other normal person would.

She thanked him and locked herself in the bathroom. Taking a deep breath, she put the shirt on the sink, with a faint desire of seeing the earth crack and pull her down. The Heads' bedrooms were outrageously big, that's for sure, but they were also full of furniture and there was no space to Transfigure a pillow into another bed like they did at the Manor and the couch was too small for someone to sleep on it.

She tried not to look at herself in the mirror and just put the dress shirt on, folding her clothes and putting them on Malfoy's desk, as she walked out of the bathroom, along with her wand, Theo's and Daphne's.

He was laying on his stomach with an arm under his head and his body was covered by the blankets only from the waist down. Hermione ignored the sight of him and pulled the blankets up to her neck.

"Granger, you do know it's not the first time we sleep together, right?" He mumbled.

"I thought you were asleep. And please, don't make this weirder than it already is." She put a hand on her forehead and sighed.

He laughed at that. "It'll never be weirder than the first time I asked you for political asylum."

Hermione thought about that for a second. That had been odd. "Perhaps for you."

Draco turned around to face her with a weird look. "Do you still have those dreams?"

She knew what he was talking about. There had been more than a few times she'd woken up screaming in the middle of the night, when they were at the Manor, scaring the life out of him. "I didn't catch any sleep last night," she confessed.

They spent a few minutes in silence, both looking at the stone ceiling.

"Neither have I," he finally whispered.

She turned towards him, "Why?"

"Nightmares, at first. Then I just couldn't fall asleep," he shrugged.

"Me too," she confessed. Hermione couldn't tell who was the first one to fall asleep, but the nightmares didn't abandon her that night either.

She dreamt about her parents. Voldemort was torturing them to find out where she was. She had run away with the Order. It was her fault they were suffering. Mr and Mrs Granger had no idea who she was though, they still believed they were Mr and Mrs Murphy, living in their apartment in Sydney. It was all her fault. She should have saved them.

She woke up with a gasp, a scream barely escaping her lips, while tears she didn't realize she was spilling ran down her cheeks. Draco didn't take long to wake up figure out what was happening, and mere moments later he was grabbing her shoulders, shaking her awake.

"Granger, it was just a dream," he whispered. Hermione slowly turned to face him. When he realized she was crying, he just dried the tears that kept on falling and frowned. "It wasn't real." He gently pushed her back down, grabbed the blankets and covered them both, then took his wand and lighted up all the candles in the room. The dark of the night usually only made it worse.

Next morning, Hermione was a wreak. The candles were now completely melted, she had dry tears on her face, her hair was a mess and one of Draco's hands was on her upper forearm, grabbing it. She sat down in the bed, trying to see the time on the clock, but she woke him up in the process. Luckily, it was just ten to seven. They still had some time before breakfast.

"How are you feeling?" his morning voice asked.

"Better, thanks. Have you managed to get some sleep?" She didn't have any words to tell him how grateful she was for managing to calm her down. Had she been in her room, she wouldn't have fallen back asleep at all, which would lead to another sleepless night. Draco just nodded and then everything was silent again.

"I'm sorry about what happened. For waking you up," she whispered.

He turned around to look at her. "Don't," he just said and she could tell he was serious. He knew what it meant too, waking up in the middle of the night because of the nightmares. She nodded and the atmosphere in the room felt lighter. "So, you think Daphne and Theo managed cleared anything up?" He murmured, after a while.

"I hope so," she sighed, "I didn't consider asking Pansy Parkinson for political asylum so they could just scowl and pout at each other all night."

"I can't believe you really took that into consideration," he laughed and she stared at him, laughing with her and not at her, without his usual mask on. Then she lightly punched him.

"It's not funny!" She protested but smiled too. "Do you think we should go wake them up?"

"Unless you want them to have another round at it before breakfast. And that's if they can still move," he smirked at her horrified face.

"You don't think they'd really do that, don't you?"

"No, I think they've already done that," he said and stood up from the bed. "Get changed, I'll have a shower. And don't go without me," he added.

Hermione nodded and stretched, following his bare back with her gaze. When he was finally in the bathroom and she heard the water run in the shower, she got up too and dressed, taking care of her impossible hair and casting a quick Scourgify on her uniform, hoping at least that would stick. She noticed Draco's Potions textbook was on the desk as well, so she took it and looked for the chapter about the Moonstone, sitting back on the bed.

A few minutes later, Malfoy got out of the bathroom only wearing a towel around his waist. "I can't believe you're really studying this early," he frowned, then took his uniform and looked at her.

"Revising," she corrected him.

He shook his head, bewildered. "Give me a minute and then we can go."

Hermione nodded absentmindedly and focused back on the book.

When they finally got in front of her door, she took a deep breath and unlocked it.

Hermione didn't quite know what to expect but the chaos wasn't on the list. There were clothes everywhere, pieces of parchment that were once on the desk now rested on the floor and in between the messy sheets were lying Daphne and Theo. She didn't want to believe it.

Draco, on the other hand, believed Hermione was about to start screaming. Her room was a hot mess and the two lovebirds had definitely been having some fun. He cleared his throat and, when he saw none of them was giving any sign of waking up, he smirked and knocked loudly on the open door. The first to acknowledge them was Daphne, who looked at them and gasped.

She kicked Theo under the sheets and he woke up with a groan, asking what was wrong.

"I think Hermione's about to faint," Daphne said.

And it kind of looked like it. She really wasn't used to all that mess. It only took that one phrase to completely wake up Theo.

"You have ten minutes to get dress and get the hell out of my room," Hermione's voice was surprisingly calm.

The girl put both their wands on a little table near the door and closed it, walking towards the common room. Draco tried not to laugh and followed her.

"Come on, you're not angry, are you?" He asked.

"I'm not angry," she stated calmly, but it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself.

"You knew it would happen."

"No, I didn't. I've told them to sort things out, not to have sex in my bed!" She scowled and Draco smirked.

"Make-up sex is the best way to sort things out."

Hermione blushed and looked away, sitting on a couch in front of the main fireplace. "Can you go take my bag, please? It's near the armchair, I don't think I could handle getting in there right now."

Draco suppressed a laugh and turned around. By the time he made it to her bedroom, Theo and Daphne were leaving. "Good morning again," he greeted them as Theo kept the door open for him with a grimace. As they left without a word, he quickly retrieved Granger's bag and got back to the common room. She wasn't on the couch anymore, though, but standing in front of the main fireplace, arguing with none other than Ginny Weasley.

"So you're shagging Malfoy, now," the latter was saying, but it sounding more like a question than anything. Draco frowned. He wasn't shagging anyone.

Granger was clearly outraged. "Excuse you? I'm not telling you again, Ginny. This was my decision and you need to accept that."

"I don't need to accept anything!" Weaselette scoffed.

"What's going on?" He asked, stopping behind Granger.

"Nothing. Let's go, I'm hungry," she said, took her bag from him and stepped out of the common room.

He glared at Ginny Weasley and pointed his wand at her. "This is the last time you talk to her that way, I'm warning you."