"I can't do this, Draco! I have exams and a life and there's no way in hell he honestly expects me to."

Ginny almost laughed from behind the statue she was hiding behind. It looked like Draco Malfoy was in for one hell of a ride. She hadn't been dealing a lot with Hermione in her pre-exams state the past years but she did hear about it from Harry and Ron and she knew bloody well how passionate Hermione was about school. There was something off about her, though, she was acting differently and she just had to know why.

"Apparently, he does expect you to. It won't be forever, he'll be back before you realize it." The Ferret was trying to convince her about something she didn't get, but Hermione seemed to have none of it.

"You don't know that. What if he doesn't come back? What then? I'll just go on with this farce forever?"

"Hermione, you need to calm down, you're going to make yourself sick. It will be fine."

"Fine? How is this going to be fine? How am I going to tell them? Bellatrix will flay me alive."

So there were problems in Voldemort's little gang? It's not like Ginny expected them to just shout their plans for everyone to hear but her stalking mission wasn't going as planned either. She had nothing.

Final-exams Hermione – completely normal. She had to do something she thought she couldn't do – which she probably could. Someone was missing – could be anyone – and there was possibly a civil war among Death Eaters. Great. Plus, she had a feeling Bellatrix wished to flay Hermione alive any other day of the year, so perhaps that wasn't even relevant.

"How am I supposed to run the bloody show without him?" Hermione hissed and punched the wall. She didn't remember ever seeing her do that.

Malfoy grabbed her shoulders so that she was facing him, his hands climbing up on her cheeks. "It is going to be fine. We'll help you and I am most definitely not letting you get hurt because of this."

Malfoy's voice was… reassuring. He didn't sound like an evil villain trying to force Hermione to go out and kill random people, he wasn't like she had imagined him to be. She had been thinking they had something on Hermione for months, now, even after Blaise told them about what happened during Christmas break. Harry had wanted to go in his place but it was too dangerous, in case the Polyjuice worn off, so they had to take Blaise's word for it and just view his memories in a Pensive.

At the end of the day, that was Hermione. She always had a plan, no matter what. Maybe it wasn't the most perfect or detailed plan but she always had one. However, she was making it bloody hard to believe she hadn't gone completely bad, that was for sure.

As she didn't hear any more talking, Ginny turned around to look at what was going on, hoping for some useful development, but she didn't quite find what she was looking for.

The two of them were standing head to head, Malfoy had his hands around her and they didn't look to be planning anything evil for the day. They were freaking her out, honestly.

Ginny didn't usually take the time to observe them, really look at them, and when she did she only saw them whispering to each other, sitting together or even holding hands. Ginny had never believed they were actually together, though. She considered it a façade play they had going on to hide something bigger.

Except that the couple she was stalking looked as real as could be. As insane as it sounded, they didn't look fake to her. So now she knew nothing. Great.

Ginny was sitting on one of the black leather armchairs in the Slytherin common room, pretending to study. Nothing had happened all day. While she kept following Hermione and Malfoy, everything was as normal as it could possibly be. After the conversation she'd eavesdropped in the morning the two of them didn't touch the subject again, although she could tell Hermione was worried.

She was sitting with Malfoy and Greengrass, leaning on him, and he had his right arm around her shoulders. He and Greengrass were deep into conversation, while Hermione only intervened from time to time. Not that they were talking about secret Death Eater plans, it was something about Diagon Alley, but Daphne seemed to have something else in mind. Her tone was quite interrogatory and Ginny couldn't find anything worth such secrecy about Diagon Alley, of all places. Hermione would chuckle into Malfoy's shoulder after a particularly odd question, while he looked more keen on pretending to know nothing about what Greengrass was asking, either avoiding her questions or giving awfully vague answers.

"So if you and Hermione got engaged, would you give her one of the Malfoy rings?" Daphne suddenly asked and Ginny turned around so quickly the Herbology book almost fell from her lap. Engaged?

"Daphne, what the hell?" Malfoy said, at the same Hermione was letting out a resigned, "Seriously?"

"What?"

"We're in the middle of a war and it's none of your business, that's what," he replied. It was pretty dismissive, really, but she doubted they'd had that conversation before and Ginny wouldn't want to have it in front of an audience either.

"You didn't answer my question," Greengrass said and crossed her arms. There was definitely something behind it, something Ginny couldn't quite grasp.

"No, I would not give her a Malfoy ring. The damn thing would probably kill her, or worse."

He did have a point. Hermione was no Pureblood and the Malfoy house was quite old. While they did take blood purity seriously, the Malfoys weren't as fanatic as the Blacks or the Lestranges. Regardless, jewelry that old and powerful would need a good month of curse-breaking work before he could give it to Hermione and not risk her getting killed.

"So Theo would buy a new one too?" Daphne questioned, nonchalantly.

"Daphne," Hermione warned.

What was going on there?

"The Notts are even more fond of their Pureblood status than my family is and you're both Sacred Twenty-Eight but with the blood curse still active, I wouldn't risk it. What is it with you and rings today?" Malfoy's voice sounded exasperated in an oddly familiar tired-of-your-shit way.

Curse? Ginny didn't know about any blood curse running through Pureblood families, but was it all families or the Greengrasses only? Could her family be involved as well?

After a few seconds of complete silence from Daphne, which Ginny started to notice was not normal at all, Malfoy spoke again, looking quite tired, "Please tell me you're not going all crazy on him again."

"I have to go," she simply answered, walking out of the common room with a grin.

"I've told you it wouldn't last," Hermione sighed.

"Theo's going to kill me."

"Theo knows his girlfriend well enough not to."

So she would have to ask Blaise about the curse too, among other things. Great.

"I don't know, okay?" Ginny said for the millionth time that day. She felt like "I don't know" was always her mood, lately. "There's something going on and neither of them seems particularly enthusiastic about it, that's all."

"You said someone's missing, they didn't give out any clues about who that may be?" Harry asked.

"No but it sounded important." Ginny sat on a chair and closed her eyes, exhausted. She had followed the two around for the whole day, apart from the classes they didn't have in common, but, even then, Hermione cared too much about school to spend that time plotting and scheming instead of taking notes.

The Room of Requirement was the Gryffindor common room again, Harry was pacing in front of the fireplace and Neville and Luna were sitting on a couch, looking concerned.

"Harry, you're making me sick, sit down," she repeated. "They actually looked like a couple, get over it."

"No, Gin, they're not a bloody couple."

"I know what I saw, I've been following them all day. It's not some wicked scheme, they don't just kiss in front of everyone and then fight like crazy when no one's looking." Ginny kind of wished they did. Everything would be easier, then.

Harry Potter stopped in front of her, looking quite dazzled, and eventually sat down. "They can't be together, Ginny. She's a Muggle-born and Malfoy's a spoiled Pureblood prat with the emotional capacity of a rock. There's no way in hell Hermione fell for that."

"But that's the thing, Harry," Ginny threw her hands up in exasperation. "Neither of them looks like they're faking it. They were alone in the bloody hallway this morning. There was no need to act and, still, the moment I thought Hermione was going to hex him or something, they were standing head to head. He was hugging her, for Merlin's grave, there was no public to do that for. They're not acting."

It had quite shocked her, really. All the time she had spent observing them, they only acted different in public, not when they were alone. You could tell they were colder, distant, whenever there were people around. Hogwarts was crawling with Bulgars and she got Hermione probably had to be on her best Death Eater behavior but the difference was clear.

The two of them only looked to be a little more relaxed when being with Theodore Nott and the older Greengrass, if in public, and that was it. Ginny still couldn't wrap her mind around it.

"She's smarter than that, something's up," Neville murmured and stood up, pacing.

"Blaise doesn't think it's fake either," Luna replied, although she was starting to look dreamy and absent again.

"They're not," Ginny agreed, "Look, I don't like it either. I don't know how this is possible or why but she has to have a plan, we just need to get her to talk."

"And how do we do that?" Neville asked.

"I might have an idea." Harry walked to the window the Room had created to simulate the view from the Gryffindor tower over the Quidditch pitch.

"What have you done?" Hermione burst into the room, outraged.

Ginny was the only one looking at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Before anyone could move a muscle, Hermione had her wand pointed at her throat. "What have you done?"

Both Neville and Zabini pointed their wands back at her and she almost laughed. "Go on, there will be a horde of Death Eaters invading this place in no time. I may die tonight but none of you will make it out alive either."

"Then help us, Hermione," Blaise looked like he actually believed she would. Hermione took a second to look around and then it hit her, hard.

"Just tell me where he is," she whispered, lowering her wand.

She stepped back from Ginny, significantly closer to Blaise. Everyone around her lowered their wands as well and she could hear the tension in the air. Honestly, she was a Death Eater and they still believed her?

Hermione didn't think they expected her to grab Blaise by his throat and point her wand at his temple. "I've been living among Slytherins and professional liars for months, Harry. You're going to have to do a lot better than that to fool me."

They looked like it was their first week of war.

"You wouldn't," Ginny murmured.

"You have two very valuable people, Gin. Watch me."

"So it's true, one of you is missing," she whispered, seemingly relieved. How would she know? Unless…

"You've been following me?" Hermione was outraged.

Ginny ignored her question. "We'll give him to you, but I genuinely don't know what else you're talking about."

Harry scoffed next to her and scowled. "Riddle. So he's valuable now, isn't he?"

"I don't know what wicked theory you have about me but I'm not always plotting and scheming like you expect me to." Honestly, they probably thought she spent her days plotting massacres. Luckily, that wasn't her job.

"You know I'm not going to stop, Hermione. You know me better than that."

She tightened her grip around his throat and snorted, "I do know better and so should you. I was ordered to find you and kill you, Harry, so how about you tell me where Draco Malfoy is before I decide to suddenly be a good Death Eater?"

"A bloody good Death Eater? You've killed and tortured for him, what is wrong with you?" Ginny seemed to be about to hex her.

"You people have been my family for seven years and you still don't know me," Hermione muttered, shaking her head. "Everything I do, I do for a reason. Malfoy is one thing but why am I so eager to have the Dark Lord back? Try to think, for once."

The room fell silent, the only one who dared to speak was Harry. "He's in the Shrieking Shack."

Hermione loosened her hold on him and lowered her wand. He had figured it out, at last. Maybe trying to survive without her or Ron had had a positive impact on him, after all. He had figured it out. He knew. Lord Voldemort was her way out.

Five minutes later, she was walking with Ginny to the Shack, since Harry obviously couldn't leave the Room of Requirement, as insurance. If something had happened to Draco, none of them would make it out in one piece. She was sick of their games. First the keys, now Draco and possibly the Dark Lord too.

Wanting to get out of the Death Eaters for good was one thing but in no way she would let them interfere. If you want something done right, do it yourself – she had been swearing by that ever since she got to know the Slytherins. She could not – would not – let them interfere in any way.

Hermione did have a plan to get out of that situation but it wasn't perfect yet – as much as it annoyed her to admit it – and she needed to figure some of the details out. Like Draco. What was she going to do with Draco? Daphne and Theo were alright, none of them were Death Eaters, even though Theo's situation was a little different, as his father was one of the first supporters of the Dark Lord.

Draco had the Mark, though, just like her, and she had to sort things out with him before she took any major decisions. She wasn't ready to give him up, didn't want to, but she couldn't ask him to fight her battles with her either, not when he would risk dying in the process.

None of them said a word until they made it to the Whomping Willow, where Hermione found the choice of the location quite annoying. She had forgotten how bloody hard it was to get in from the entry by the Willow.

It took several minutes and a lot of effort not to be killed by the damn thing while trying to make it into the secret passage and Ginny would have been knocked out by one of the branches if Hermione hadn't pushed her down into the tunnel before she had a chance to poke the knot in the trunk.

"Why did you do that?" She asked, once they were safely in.

"I didn't know you were so eager to spend the night in the Hospital Wing but I'll make sure to let it hit you, next time." Hermione really wasn't in the mood for interrogations.

"I'm not, you just didn't have to do that, that's all."

"I did have to do that and if you think Harry or anyone else would not hunt me down because I decided to let a bloody tree knock you out, you're wrong."

"Looks like Harry's decisions are a bit off, these days," Ginny murmured after a while. She didn't remember it to take this long to get there.

Of course, no one understood why Harry had told her where Malfoy was, out of the blue. He'd given no explanation and she was pretty sure there was something very close to a fight still going on in the Room of Requirement.

She had been looking for Draco everywhere, all day, she even tried to use the map – and she usually did her best not to use it – when she didn't see him at dinner but he was just gone. Disappeared. There was no reason for him to be using the seventh floor and she was pretty sure it was always occupied by Gryffindors anyway, as he knew as well. She had even taken into consideration he and Theo might have been off to get Daphne's ring but Theo was at school and she was positive he wouldn't send Draco alone to buy his girlfriend's engagement ring. Hermione knew there was something going on, with the Dark Lord missing.

She actually had a theory about that but wasn't quite sure yet. Hermione was positive Harry's horcrux hunt hadn't stopped, so maybe he had destroyed enough of them for Voldemort to realize what was going on. She just couldn't find that much on how they worked, even in the restricted section.

As she began to notice a faint light ahead of her, Hermione couldn't help but sigh in relief. She was doing way too much and not enough thinking at the same time. She hadn't even considered this may be a trap, that someone could be waiting for them in the Shack, ready to knock her out and lock her up somewhere no one could find her.

Maybe Draco only took a trip to Hogsmeade or something and they made it look like he had disappeared. Then again, maybe they did take him and this still was a trap. Suddenly, the possibility that she had been played hit her and she slightly slowed down, not enough to raise suspicions in Ginny but enough to give her more time to think.

Hermione nonverbally cast a Supersensory Charm, and listened closely. She did hear voices coming from the Shack entry but couldn't quite recognize any of them, as they were still too far. Deciding that couldn't be normal, she stopped and turned around, facing Ginny.

"What?"

"You may want to cast a Silencing Spell next time," she said and Stunned her without as much as a word.

Quickly, she twirled her wand around herself and cast an Invisibility Spell and proceeded along the small passage.

Hermione climbed up the stairs and entered the Shack, careful not to make any noise. The voices were still arguing about what she supposed was Draco's capture.

"…out of your mind…"

"…necessary…"

"…she will kill you…madness…"

"…doesn't know…"

Even with the spell, she couldn't hear a lot, they were mostly whispering and she recognized a male and a female voice. As Hermione emerged into the abandoned house, the voices got clearer and louder. She stopped by the door and looked inside the room.

Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass were arguing, while an angry-looking Draco Malfoy was tied to a chair, as was she.

"You're completely mad," she said.

"You're a Slytherin, Daph, you should know better."

"Being a Slytherin does not excuse kidnapping your friends. What were you thinking?"

"I kidnapped no one, you followed me!"

Hermione took off the spell and Daphne saw her at once but pretended to be looking around the room, as Zabini had his back turned at her.

"You Stunned Draco, brought him here, hit him with a Silencing Spell and tied him to a bloody chair. I call that kidnapping."

Slytherin indeed. That's what she liked about them, they didn't just run into the fight without as much as a plan, like a Gryffindor would. They would analyze the situation and choose the best option. Right then, the best option was letting her know what had happened.

"Hermione will thank us when we get her out of this madness."

She almost snorted. She pointed her wand at him and cast a silent Incarcerous. The next second Blaise was on the floor, bound and gagged.

"Hermione will do no such thing. Who do you think you are? I'm not some damsel in distress who needs saving. I can take care of myself."

She released Draco and Daphne and Blasted the door that supposedly led outside.

"Are you alright?"

They both nodded and Draco kissed her, before taking her hand and heading to the door.

"This is not over," she threatened.

As soon as they were far enough from the Shack, she stopped and pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of her Disillusioned beaded bag, handing it to Daphne. "Ginny should wake up any moment, take this and go to Honeydukes. In the cellar there's a trap-door that opens to a secret passage leading to the one-eyed witch statue by the Dark Arts classroom. It takes about an hour but it's safer than taking the short way."

"Where will you go?"

"Malfoy Manor. I'll see you soon."

Daphne hugged them goodbye and took the Cloak, tossing it on with one last worried glance.

Her hand still in Draco's, they ran out of the Hogsmeade borders and Disapparated, images flashing through her mind. The Dark Lord gripping his chest. His red eyes wide open as he stared unmoving into the nothing, before grabbing her left arm and touching her Mark with the point of his finger. Her whole arm had felt like hell opened its gates under her skin.

"You're in charge, Miss Granger."

"My Lord?" she had panted out, terrified.

"Find him and kill him."

"Find who?"

Lord Voldemort had cought a rivulet of blood. "Harry Potter."