Draco and Hermione's lunch consisted of take-away fish and chips eaten in a small, semi-deserted park. They'd just kept wandering around the city without a proper destination, between stolen kisses and Draco slamming into a phone booth in a moment of utter confusion after a pigeon had landed onto his head – which had been hilarious, to say the least.

Being away from the Wizarding world gave her a sense of peacefulness she hadn't been able to find anywhere lately. No one knew them there, they didn't have to worry about the war, she didn't have to be a murderer, there were no Death Eaters.

She knew that, once they were back in Hogwarts, she could pretty much expect a week of faking and scowling around, with Karkaroff so near, and she couldn't afford the slightest mistake. No contacts with anyone who didn't belong in Slytherin, nothing that could look suspicious. To make it quick, she would have to be the perfect Death Eater for a week, an unusual addition to her school schedule.

It was the first time since the beginning of her seventh year she didn't want to go back to school. She had to, though. Hermione couldn't just disappear without the Dark Lord commanding every Death Eater under his control to find her, no matter the cost.

As soon as Draco and Hermione landed right outside Hogsmeade's borders, they found a furious Daphne Greengrass waiting for them.

"What were you thinking?" Daphne almost screamed.

"I didn't think you'd be this worried, mom." Draco shrugged off the snow from his coat.

"Daphne, there's really no need," Hermione chuckled, quite amused, and started walking back to the castle.

"There is a great need. You leave me here, alone, trying to figure out something even remotely convincing to tell Snape in order to justify your absence and just disappear."

"It's fine, Daph, Snape won't kick us out of school just because of a walk in London."

It was odd how Hermione had reconsidered her priorities regarding rules in the past months, and gave up following every single one of them. Normally, she would have firmly refused to escape school for the weekend, but that part of her was long gone. She was too far lost to worry about Hogwarts rules.

She was a Death Eater, there was no way Snape was expelling her – her deepest fear as she was little. The mere thought of being expelled, losing everything, not studying at Hogwarts anymore, would have killed her at the time. She wouldn't give up magic for anything. Of course, things were different now. She knew no one could take away what she had learnt, no one could force her to leave – not until she would keep being at the Dark Lord's orders.

A hint of worry hit her as she asked herself whether Snape had told the Dark Lord about that little adventure of theirs, but, on the other hand, she still hadn't felt the Mark burn on her forearm and, if she were to believe the lack of Death Eaters, there was a good chance Snape had kept it to himself.

He did call them into his office as soon as they stepped foot in the castle though, Daphne next to them still mumbling something about how irresponsible they had been.

"You have ten seconds to tell me where you have been, before I make you regret ever leaving this castle," he greeted them without as much as looking up from the book he was reading.

Before Draco could open his mouth and say something they would both truly regret, Hermione sat down. "We were out for a walk, that's all."

"A five hours long walk?"

"Well, we did stop for lunch."

"And can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't report this to the Dark Lord?"

"We just went out for a walk, I don't see why the Dark Lord's time should be wasted on our weekend activities." Draco wore the same smirk he always had when he knew he had already won.

If Snape reported them and the Lord found out they were genuinely having a walk, he would get mad for wasting his time because of some teenagers' get-away to London.

As dinner was getting closer, Draco should have understood his day couldn't possibly end as good as it had started.

Bloody Viktor Krum had stolen Hermione from him to talk about some bullshit of his. The only thing he knew for sure was he had already had enough of him and only two days had passed since he came in. Viktor Krum thought he could have everything just because, because he was rich and famous. He was just an arrogant Seeker, too full of himself and that didn't know when to leave it alone.

And, when he told Hermione, she laughed at him – laughed at him! – and affirmed it was fascinating how he could see those things in Viktor, whom she didn't think was an arrogant Seeker, too full of himself and that doesn't know when to leave it alone, but couldn't see them in himself every day.

Draco was outraged, to say the least. He was in no way comparable to bloody Viktor Krum.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have made no progress whatsoever in getting Granger to stay away from Krum, and had a feeling he never would. His personal crusade against Viktor Krum wouldn't go well until he made a bad move.

Besides, she was keen on spending time with him as the great friends they were and he found out through Daphne the two had stayed in contact since fourth year, with letters and all, since the bloody Yule Ball and that damn blue dress that fitted her so well. That had been one hell of a rough night for his ego. And Daphne even said he had invited her in Bulgaria for the summer! How she couldn't understand was just beyond him.

Theo and Daphne had had to endure, again, his bragging about how much he just didn't like Krum and how Hermione shouldn't spend all that time with him and he couldn't but feel insulted when Daphne told him she and Krum were "a nice couple". His own friend! His own friend he considered a sister ever since he could remember.

When he turned around to glare at the happy couple and saw Krum kiss Granger's cheek before leaving, he thought he was just going to explode. Draco couldn't but hope that damn week ended as soon as possible, so Krum would bloody go back to Bulgaria and leave him the fuck alone.

As Hermione sat back next to him and leaned in to kiss him, he turned around and her lips only found his jaw. He answered his witch's amused look with a scowl out of sheer pettiness, making it clear he had no intention of talking to her and she could go back to Krum for all he cared.

Hermione, with a smirk that looked pretty damn serious to him, got up as to follow him out of the dungeons, but he just grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down, without as much as a word.

In the meantime, of course, Daphne and Theo were staring at the scene, quite entertained, by the looks of it.

"If that upset you so much, I'll find a way to make it up to you," she whispered in his ear and Draco had every intention to ignore her, but then he felt a hand climb up on his thigh and stop right below where he was internally hoping she would get.

Bloody Gryffindor. It was the Quidditch match all over again. It had taken quite a lot of effort, back then, not to Disapparate them both back at the Manor.

He did his best to give the impression of nonchalance, but she seemed to quite enjoy teasing him as she leaned into him and stroked his thigh back and forth, until Draco was forced to stare into the fireplace and try to calm down.

"Doesn't look like you minded that much, does it?" Her hand stopped on the waistband of his uniform pants and Draco swallowed, desperately trying not to embarrass himself in front of the whole seventh year, plus the Durmstrang students. "Doesn't look like there's something I should make amends for, right?"

As her hand moved up to his belt buckle, he grabbed it and pulled her to him, kissing her like there was no tomorrow, feeling her smirk under his lips.

She bit his lower lip and drew back. "I think it's dinner time."

Dinner he would spend with a Disillusionment Charm to keep him company and trying to forget the feeling of her hand on him, on his waistband, on the buckle he hoped she would untie.

Theo gave him a sympathetic pat on the back and followed his girlfriend on her way out.

As soon as they stepped foot out of the dungeons Hermione had her Death Eater mask on and he took her right hand in his, getting a soft smile in return, all the playfulness gone.

Being with Hermione Granger was exhausting. What was even more exhausting was trying to get some attention while she was studying – so basically most of the time – and he couldn't even find the words to express how bloody hard it was to try and get her out of the library when it was already far too late to keep studying. The thing was, whenever she was really focused on something, she tended to forget things like eating, or sleeping.

His theory was Granger had finally realized she would have to finish that one year, that the war wouldn't get in between her and N.E.W.T.s again. She had probably thought going back to school was just some random charade the Dark Lord hadn't told them about yet, so she didn't fully prepare for exams – according to her. Even though she did study more than he ever did, so she was still way ahead of all of them.

Once she had made sure her study schedule was starting to go as planned, she started hyperventilating and repeating she was behind with every class, although she was at least two months ahead of everyone in their year. Draco had been forced to spike her coffee with Calming Potion more than once.

Only two days after they had sneaked off to London, Draco Malfoy was trying to get some attention from what now was his girlfriend. She was sitting crossed-legs on the couch in his room, practicing for the millionth time a spell that was already perfect.

He thought of hiding the damn Charms textbook but wasn't sure that was a great idea, after seeing her reaction when he'd tried to distract her. He didn't manage to accomplish that with anything, not even magic. Only thing he could do was take a book and pretend to read to avoid an existential crisis.

Draco had been staring at her for hours now, it was past midnight and she didn't look even remotely close to being done. He was pretty sure she would go on until morning to "make up for the time she'd lost."

Sighing, he left the book on his desk and leaned on the back of the couch to draw her into his arms, leaving wet kisses on her neck, and nearly snorted when he saw she barely even noticed him. "Come to bed."

"Draco, I have to study."

He nipped at the skin right below her jaw and grinned. "You've been working on the same spell for hours and it's already as perfect as one can possibly get it to be, so you either come to bed out of your own free will now, or you will in a minute, after I'll be done casting an Imperio on you."

"You can't do that, I'm still six chapters behind!" Her voice was full of panic, which made Draco laugh. The importance his witch gave to school, at her own expenses, was absurd.

"And you will have plenty of time to study in April, when Flitwick assigns them." He managed to slip away the book from her hands without getting Stunned and closed it, then left a kiss on her cheek and nodded for her to get up.

"But it'll be too late," she complained and looked at her book, worried.

"Hermione," he warned her, making it disappear with a silent spell. As he saw her gasp at him, indignant, Draco smirked. "You can have it back tomorrow morning. Now, come to bed."

"If I'm failing my N.E.W.T.s, it's on you," she pointed her finger at him and Draco drew her closer.

Hermione hadn't even been awake for ten minutes yet and she was already lecturing him.

"Only thing you're failing at is letting me be a decent boyfriend," he laughed and kissed her. If she was going to fail, then they all didn't stand a chance at life.

"Forgive me for trying to pass my exams, your highness."

Draco grinned, "Well, that's a lot better." He rolled on top of her and started kissing her neck, while she was still saying something about N.E.W.T.s and how he didn't let her study, and as he kept getting lower he smirked, hearing that her rambling was interrupted by sights and gasps that couldn't feel better at that moment. He was kissing the gap between her breasts when they heard the knocking. Draco growled and buried his head on her stomach. "This has to end." He was about to get up and answer the door but she stopped him.

"What?" Hermione hissed at Theo. He sort of blushed as he saw her attire – Draco's uniform shirt – and made to speak, but got interrupted. "How about you don't knock on people's doors before breakfast?" Theo nodded and his witch quite literally closed the door in his face. Well, didn't the exams suit her?

He was behind her before she could realize, but it didn't really go as planned, as she locked her hands in his hair, their lips together and slammed him into the door. That's his witch, going from harassing Theo for interrupting what could have made one hell of a morning to sexually harass him for stopping – not that he was complaining.

Draco couldn't find enough people to thank for Wednesday mornings and that blessed free first period they shared, as he lifted her for Hermione to lock those beautiful legs she had around his waist.

"I should have hexed you senseless," she said in between kisses and the bites on his neck.

"Never too late to try," he grunted while she was assaulting his skin, where he was sure she was going to leave a mark – or marks, by the looks of it.

"Don't tempt me."

"I think Theo was trying to tell us we missed breakfast." Had he known the consequences of his words, Draco wouldn't have repeated them, for she stopped kissing him and got back on her own feet.

"What do you mean, we missed breakfast?" She narrowed her eyes and turned around, looking for the clock.

"Granger, it's Wednesday, I have first period free, as do you, so my alarm is set an hour later than usual. I usually go to breakfast, but I was kind of busy today" he sighed as he saw her worried expression, knowing where that situation was headed.

"I only have forty minutes to review Potions?"

Draco had only left Hermione for sixth period, after which he had to meet Theo at the Quidditch pitch to practice for the non-existent Quidditch tournament. They could use their free time to practice or just plan out a friendly but there was no official competition.

He was supposed to help Theo ring shopping, but they pretty much had to go to Diagon Alley for that and they couldn't be spotted evading from school in such a public place, and it wasn't like Daphne would leave them alone without them telling her why they were going and Draco was pretty damn sure she had eyes everywhere, so they couldn't really go without her knowing.

Theo didn't want to risk some of the Nott jewels being cursed, given his family's past, so he refused to give her something from their vault. They could only wait for the Easter holiday to sneak off to Diagon Alley, but, still, Theodore wouldn't shut up about it. Wouldn't be much of a secret anymore if he kept bragging about it, but they were pretty confident Daphne wouldn't even remotely think of stepping foot on the field on a rainy day, so it was safe.

Apparently, keeping this big of a secret from a girl was not as easy as one would expect. At the end of the day, Daphne had been raised in between high society brunches and balls, she was literally brought up to see an engagement proposal coming from miles away, which didn't really make it easy to try and keep it secret. Seriously, two blokes ring shopping without a clue and he couldn't even ask Hermione to give them a hint on what Daphne wanted her engagement ring to be like. He could only hope for the best.

"Seriously, Daph, this is getting ridiculous," Hermione complained. She couldn't believe Daphne had dragged her into this.

"I mean, look at them! They're not even playing, just standing there in the middle of the pitch, talking. There must be something going on."

Daphne Greengrass had her eyes glued on the Quidditch pitch from the bloody Gryffindor tower, where third-years and fourth-years were living. After classes were over, Daphne had straight up dragged her up there, where she was only allowed to be because of her Head Girl status, and was now using Hermione's authority to stalk her boyfriend because she thought something was up.

"You're overreacting. They're just talking, why does it have to be such a big deal?" Hermione sat on the armchair near the window Daphne was using to prove whatever the hell she was trying to prove without any sort of evidence.

"Because they're barely even practicing. If you only have to talk, you can bloody well talk inside the castle, instead of flying around in the rain. Which means they don't want to be heard, so they must be up to something," she explained. It still didn't make sense to her.

"They're boys, they like Quidditch and, as much as neither of us understands why, it does sometimes entail flying around in the rain. Can we go now? We've been here for an hour, people are starting to stare."

She hated conspiracy-theory Daphne. She really did – with a passion. She would always drag her into situations like creeping on her boyfriend, whom she was supposed to trust, usually just to confirm her crazy theories, or weird plans only she could think of.

Then again, she once kidnapped her from the Manor for a six hours long shopping trip to every single dress shop she could find in Wizarding London because she suspected her mom wanted to throw her a surprise birthday party – which she didn't, Daphne's birthday being over two months away – and she wouldn't have anything to wear – also not true, she had a whole wing for herself at Greengrass Manor and a good half of it was dedicated to clothes.

Stalking was no news to Hermione. It was routine.

"Hold on, something's happening," Daphne answered.

"It'd better," she murmured.

"They're leaving! We have to go back to the common room."

And so Hermione found herself almost running back to the dungeons because "Theo can't suspect anything."

Twenty minutes later, she kindly abandoned Daphne on a couch and locked herself up in her room with no intention of leaving it before dinner.

Her peace didn't last as long as she wanted it to, though, for someone knocked on the door and she could only pray it wasn't Daphne with her crazy plans again.

She opened the door and found it was only Draco.

"Can I come in?"

"As long as Daphne's not with you," she sighed and closed her Transfiguration textbook.

"What happened?" He closed the door behind him, kicked off his shoes and slid into bed with her.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, really. I've just spent more than an hour stalking you and Theo from the bloody Gryffindor tower this afternoon, so whatever you're up to, either be more subtle about it, or she's going to find out by next week." Hermione let him draw her on his chest and sighed, closing her eyes.

Draco's chuckle echoed through the room and she couldn't help but smile. The lucky bastard didn't have to handle crazy-Daphne, ever.

"I'm genuinely sorry. We were sure she wouldn't step foot on the pitch because of the weather, but we never thought about her spying on us from the Gryffindor dorms."

"Just talk while actually playing Quidditch next time and she'll leave you alone," she yawned half-sentence and leaned into him, as sleep was getting to her.

"I'd tell you what this is all about, but I'm worried she may carve it out of you, if she gets a hint you know something." Draco's hand moved to her hair and began massaging her scalp.

"Don't. Seriously, just don't, I don't want to know. She'd never leave me alone."

"Are you sure you're okay? You're not usually sleepy this early, I figured you'd be up studying or something. You know, catching up," he mocked.

"Stop making fun of me, I really am behind. And I don't know, really, I think I'm just tired."

"Want me to get you something from Madame Pomfrey?"

"No, I'm fine. And why are you being so nice, did something happen? What did you do, Malfoy?" Hermione raised her head and eyed him suspiciously.

"Why do you straight-up assume something's happened every time I'm being nice, Granger?" He pretended to be offended and he'd never looked more like his oh-so-pureblood self, to her.

"Because you don't naturally strike people as nice, Draco," she laughed and put her head back down.

"That's because I don't want to. But, since you so nicely agreed to let me handle our relationship, I think I can be as bloody nice to you as I please, can't I?" His hand was back in her hair and the other one was playing with her fingers.

"Get back to your snobby self, you prick, you're freaking me out," she laughed and entangled their fingers together.