"Miss Granger," a voice behind her said, startling her. Hermione turned around and found it was none other than Lucius Malfoy. Just the person she wanted to see.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said back, not giving any signs of actually wanting to talk to him.

"I was talking to Dolohov earlier and, I must say, his behavior is slightly concerning," Lucius continued regardless, moving so he was now standing in front of her.

Hermione thought the Malfoys had enough manners that they would not disturb someone who was reading and clearly did not want to be interrupted. Clearly, she was wrong.

"If and when I will consider Dolohov's behavior concerning, I will make sure to take care of it, Mr. Malfoy, but thank you for your dedication," she forced out in a polite tone. She was, after all, in his house.

"I'm afraid it's not wise of you to trust him," Lucius insisted. Hermione wondered what he was planning, where that little charade would go. He had to have something in mind if he was trying to make her, what, kill Dolohov? Look into whatever it was he was allegedly doing? What was it he was trying to accomplish?

"Funny, that's exactly what he said about you."

Lucius' face went whiter than it already was, to the point where Hermione had to hold back an amused smirk.

"Dolohov's advice is not exactly one I would follow."

"No one asked you to, Mr. Malfoy," Hermione replied, slowly. "And, if I were you, I would make sure to have solid proof before accusing someone of Dolohov's rank of betrayal. Do you have that sort of proof?"

Hermione studied him closely as he took in her words. She knew he was not pleased, that was quite obvious. On the other hand, it was still Lucius Malfoy she was facing. Any hope to get something out of him was pointless.

"I do not," he was forced to admit, eventually.

Well, that didn't mean he wouldn't fabricate it, in case of need, and something was telling her the possibility wasn't far from reality at all. Hermione had the feeling Lucius' plan was far more than getting Dolohov possibly killed, or incarcerated until the Dark Lord's return. She made a mental note to talk to Draco about it. If anyone knew Lucius Malfoy that well, it was him.

"Then I suggest you don't make any more of these accusations. The consequences might not be pretty." Hermione didn't mean it as a threat per se, although she had to admit that was what it sounded like. What she meant to say was that Lucius was already in a precarious position, had been for a long time now, and, if the Dark Lord came back to see him accusing his top Death Eaters of betrayal without any ounce of proof for whatever personal gain, he would have one hell of a day – possibly his last one.

"You have no power over me," Lucius Malfoy spat through gritted teeth.

Hermione smiled, quite amused. "Are you sure about that?"

She closed the book that rested in her lap with a loud thud and rested her left hand, the one with Draco's ring on her index, on the cover. Lucius lowered his eyes for a mere second, but it was more than enough for him to see it.

"Why do you have my son's ring?"

"Draco gave it to me," she simply answered. It was the truth, after all.

"You children don't even know what that type of gesture entails," Lucius spat out, a look of contempt on his face. She knew about his little plan of getting Draco close to her so he could use it in his advantage, of course, but perhaps Lucius thought this was too far to justify his personal quest of glory.

"I think we know very well what it entails."

Draco emerged from the main entrance of the Malfoy library, glaring at his father. Hermione didn't know whether he'd just got there or if he had been listening the whole time. She supposed it didn't really matter. Nothing had been said that he didn't already know about.

"What is the meaning of this, Draco?" Lucius almost screamed. His usual façade of cold composure was starting to fall apart.

"Why, father, I thought you approved of us," Draco said, with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Hermione wondered whether Draco wanted to see how far his father's ambition would go in spite of his beliefs or if he was just bored.

"You can't be stupid enough to think I would approve of such thing."

Hermione raised a brow. So that was the line? Sleeping with her, even dating her, was fine, but her wearing his jewelry wasn't.

Of course, Draco implicitly told her what it meant and she was close enough to Daphne to know of these Pureblood customs. Still, Hermione thought Lucius' ambition would make things less difficult and Draco's ring on her finger was a sort of muggle promise ring. It was just something to tell people they were taken. If anything, she'd thought the public appearance of them together would make Lucius think he was actually getting what he wanted.

"Well, then, it seems I'm just that stupid." Draco shrugged and stared intently at his father.

Suddenly Hermione's Mark started burning. Bellatrix was calling her. Bellatrix, of all people, gave in and used their connection to actually summon her. Something big happened.

Hermione rose from the armchair she was sitting in and both men turned towards her.

"What happened?" Draco's voice was filled with urgency, as he approached her and touched her Mark, inspecting it as if it could talk.

"Bellatrix. She summoned me from Gringotts" she just said, and Disapparated them at the bank, Lucius quickly following them.

"What?" Hermione left Draco's side. Bellatrix was arguing with a Goblin so loudly she thought she might kill him. It was astounding that she actually hadn't.

"They broke into my vault!" She screamed, turning towards her, wand in hand. "These incompetent creatures did nothing to stop them."

Hermione furrowed her brows. All this for some stolen gold? The Lestrange and Black vaults were filled with enough treasures for generations to come to live a more than wealthy life.

"Who's they?"

Bellatrix started laughing maniacally, while the Goblin glared at her with visible contempt.

"The Order. They stole from me."

"Bella, all this tantrum for some stolen gold?" Lucius spat. Clearly, he was still mad. Usually, he wouldn't address her like that.

Bellatrix laughed again and pointed her want at him. Hermione couldn't say she wanted to do anything to stop her.

"Like you'd know. You pathetic excuse for a Death Eater."

Draco was staring at the scene with a raised brow, quite amused. Hermione didn't understand what exactly in that situation amused him but she sure as hell suspected he had something to do with it.

"What is this about, Bellatrix?" Hermione reluctantly intervened.

"They stole the cup," she calmly said, then turned around and pointed her wand at the Goblins. "They let them steal the cup."

Hermione tried to keep a neutral expression. "The Hufflepuff cup?" She asked, lowering her voice, just to be sure.

"I will kill every single one of you," Bellatrix giggled, a mad light in her eyes. She was spinning with her wand pointing at every single Goblin in the room. Hermione took that as a yes.

"Killing them will not get us the cup back, Bellatrix," Draco said.

"They stole from my Lord!" Bellatrix screamed, turning around so she was facing her nephew.

"Who were these people?" Draco addressed the Goblins.

"We have reason to believe they were under the effects of the Polyjuice potion, therefore we are not sure of their true identity," the Goblin reluctantly answered.

"And why would that be?"

"Because one of them was me!" Bellatrix screamed.

"Well if we don't know who they were, we have no way of getting the Cup back, along with anything else they might have stolen." Draco was rather calm in his approach, which seemed to anger Bellatrix even more.

"Is there anything you useless morons can even do about this?" She screamed and Hermione almost rolled her eyes at her. "Do you not understand the gravity of this situation?"

"Bellatrix," she started, before anyone could make things worse. "I do understand the gravity but Draco is right. If we do not know who stole it, we have no way of getting it back. The Cup could be anywhere by now, where would we even start looking for it?"

Hermione should have known you couldn't really reason with Bellatrix.

"Oh, you would like that, wouldn't you, you little Mudblood?" Bellatrix turned around and pointed her wand at her, this time. Hermione took a step forward, gripping hers as well.

"You called me here, Bellatrix, what did you expect me to do when we don't even know who did this? Apparate in here and kill everyone on sight?" Hermione felt Draco's hand grip her elbow, probably trying to reassure her. "Did the Cup have any tracking spell on it we can use to trace it back to its current location?"

Bellatrix did not answer. She took it as a no. The Hufflepuff Cup was a Horcrux, for goodness' sake, didn't the idea cross their minds? Hermione guessed it wasn't that bad of a thing after all, though. If the Order stole it, she could only hope Harry got his hands on it and somehow destroyed it, that was if he wasn't himself part of the group trying to rob Gringotts, which Hermione was pretty sure he was. Looking back at Draco, she was sure he had something to do with this.

"Was it you?" Hermione asked as soon as they were out of Gringotts, taking his hand and Disapparating back to the Manor so they could Floo to her room at Hogwarts.

"I did tell Wesley and their little rebel group where to find the Cup but I wasn't sure they would actually walk into Gringotts so soon," he muttered.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at that, an amused smile on her lips. "Harry is the rebel group at this point, of course they would march in there and steal the damn thing."

Draco seemed to think about that for a few seconds, then grimaced. "Well, at least it caught them by surprise. That was good."

"Yeah, well, we'll have to deal with Bellatrix now," she sighed, taking off her cloak and leaving it on one of the armchairs. "What do you think your father is up to?"

Draco furrowed his brows. "You mean the Dolohov thing?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure where he was trying to go with that. Is it personal or is something more?" Hermione let out a frustrated sigh and sat on the sofa, conjuring a blanket to wrap around herself and lighting up the fireplace with a quick movement of her wand. Meanwhile, Draco was still standing right next to it, leaning on the wall.

"It may be just dear old Lucius trying to take out his superiors to take their place," he shrugged. "Don't worry about him, he's not worth it," Draco added, approaching her and sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

"I'm not. I just feel like that man is always plotting something."

"He usually is." Draco's laugh had no hints of amusement in it. "You do know what that ring means though, don't you?" He asked, taking her hands into his.

Hermione smiled softly and intertwined their fingers together. "I wouldn't have accepted it if I didn't."

Draco gave her one of his rare smiles. "Good. I was not looking forward to a lecture on how Pureblood customs are outdated and medieval."

Hermione rolled her eyes, amused. "Pureblood customs are outdated and medieval." They sat in silence for a few moments, Hermione looking at their locked hands and Draco looking at her. "Why did you give me that ring, really?" She whispered, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"You know very well why."

Suddenly all the bad things she'd ever done, all the times she behaved more like Bellatrix than like herself came rushing to her. She didn't deserve him. At least Draco was forced by circumstances and threats to be who he was, but she could have easily ran away or killed herself the first chance she got. Yet she didn't.

"I'm a monster." Hermione shook her head, a bitter smile on her lips.

Draco shook his head back. "No, you're not."

"I'm a murderer who's borderline supporting a psychopath, I'd say that fits right into the description," she laughed without any trace of humor.

A hand unlocked from hers and cupped her cheek, forcing her to look at him.

"You were forced to do all those things. You're not a monster."

A knock on the door interrupted her before she could even speak and Draco unwillingly let go of her to get up to answer it.

"I didn't think you'd be back so soon," Theo said, as soon as he opened the door, looking quite surprised.

"Did something happen?"

"No, not really. I just wanted to ask if you two were in the mood for a walk to Hogsmeade." He leaned on the doorframe and his eyes narrowed as he looked back and forth between them. "Did something happen?"

Draco cleared his throat and briefly glanced back at her.

"Mate, it's not the right moment," he said, quietly.

"No, it's fine," she intervened. "Theo's right, I could use some fresh air."

Draco nodded but looked at her suspiciously as she grabbed her cloak off a chair. "Alright then. I'll go get mine and be right back."

He left the room and walked into his own as Theo raised an eyebrow at her, as if asking what was wrong. Hermione shook her head dismissively. There was no reason to worry her friend with her paranoia.

As it turned out, the reason why Theo insisted they went with him was that Daphne was already at the village and he didn't want to go alone. She was shopping with Pansy and Millicent in the few boutiques available at Hogsmeade. As soon as they'd made it to their destination, Theo had wandered off looking for his girlfriend, leaving Hermione and Draco alone.

Draco had an arm around her shoulder and was keeping her close, all because she'd complained about the cold. Both of them were perfectly capable of casting a warming spell on themselves but no, Draco chose the Slytherin way, which, in this case, seemed to be the one that most annoyed Theo, who constantly complained about how he felt like the third wheel whenever it was just the three of them. While in normal circumstances she would protest at his behavior, she was tired enough to let it slip and even be secretly amused by it.

As they were walking up to the Hog's Head Inn, far more reserved than the Three Brookmsticks' and a place where they wouldn't be constantly stared at by everyone, someone called her name. That someone was Theo, who was approaching them waving his hand to catch their attention, probably, as if screaming wasn't enough. Daphne was right besides him, looking quite amused at his manners.

As Hermione smiled at him and they turned in his direction, she felt a burning pain all across her back, a kind of pain she knew well and that, she was sure, would be forever locked in her memory. It was the same pain she'd felt when Antonin Dolohov had slashed his wand at her at the Department of Mysteries.

The last things she heard were Draco calling her name and someone else, Theo, probably, scream the incantation for what she recognized as a dark curse. After that, the darkness took her.

Hermione woke up to bright lights and the characteristic smell of the Hospital Wing. As her eyes adjusted to the brightness, someone next to her stood up, essentially hovering over her and calling her name.

"Draco?" She called, as soon as she recognized him. He handed her a glass of water she gladly drank, sitting up.

"How are you feeling?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "How long have I been out?"

Draco took back the glass and locked their fingers together. "Not long, just over a day."

"Dolohov. Where is he?"

"It wasn't him. He just used Dolohov's signature curse, for some reason," he reassured her, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Theo got him."

"Who was it? And why am I feeling fine? Last time I got hit with that curse it took me weeks to recover properly." It was not a pleasant memory to think back to but it wasn't one she could easily forget either. Now, she was barely sore.

"Dolohov performed the counter-curse on you, he's the only one who knows it." His jaw was clearly clenched. "It was a Snatcher. Said he did it because a Mudblood can't possibly take the Dark Lord's place."

Hermione lowered her gaze. "Where is he?"

Draco sighed. "Malfoy Manor dungeons. You can see him as soon as you get better, if you want. I told Bella she could have her way with him as long as she didn't kill him but Dolohov stepped in."

Hermione raised a brow, confused. "Dolohov? Why would he do that?"

Draco merely shrugged. "I guess he just wanted to defend your honor, my damsel in distress," he said, taking her hand in his and softly kissing her knuckles quite mockingly. Hermione laughed at that. "Or to defend his honor, since the Snatcher seemed to be trying to impersonate him."

"Don't you think it's weird?" Dolohov suddenly stepping in to defend her honor, as Draco so theatrically put it, could mean no good. The Snatcher using his signature curse on her as if trying to make it look like Dolohov did it was sketchy at best, too.

"I think it's quite odd, to put it lightly, but I also think there's little to no way of getting his true intent out of him unless he wants to tell us, whether he was defending you or himself. Dolohov's a very skilled Occlumens and an excellent duelist, having him on our bad side would do no good."

Hermione knew he was right but she couldn't quite shake the feeling off her. "He's been acting weird around me for months now, it's starting to make me wonder something is really going on."

Draco gave her hand another squeeze. "You have an army at your disposal, Hermione. And me," he added with a smirk. "If he tries anything, he'll pay."

Hermione smiled at him teasingly. It wasn't her safety she was worried about. That ship was long gone. "I'm sure Bellatrix will be ecstatic to kill her friends for me."

He shook his head, mirroring her smile. "Forget Bellatrix. If he really is plotting something, he'll work it out with me."

"And me," she added, knowing she understood what she meant. She would be mirroring his promise if it turned out Draco was the target.

The Drawing Room at Malfoy Manor was, as usual, full of Death Eaters. This time they were reunited for a special occasion. Hermione was going to meet her attacker. The Snatcher didn't look good when Greyback dragged him in. He looked exactly like someone who'd spent a nasty day with Dolohov. The man could barely stand.

Hermione looked around the room from her seat – the Dark Lord's seat. Almost all the Death Eaters were seated, except for a few. Bellatrix could barely sit still, probably eager to get her round with the prisoner. Dolohov chose to lean against the wall at her left instead, wand in hand and a dark look in his eyes. Draco wasn't in his seat either, preferring to stand next to her, arms crossed over his chest, in case something happened.

"Well, what do you want to do with him?" Greyback asked quite brusquely, probably thinking she'd give him the Snatcher.

Hermione ignored his question. "You can go, Greyback." He sneered and growled at her response, but left nonetheless. She looked back at the Snatcher that had tried to kill her and tilted her head to the side. "What did you think you'd achieve by killing me and making it look like Dolohov did it?"

Draco told her the man was actually Disillusioned while casting the curse on her. If Theo hadn't hit him back he could have just disappeared and everyone would assume it was Dolohov, since it was his signature curse.

The man spat on the floor in front of him and glared at her. "Mudblood."

Hermione scoffed without a hint of amusement and put a hand over Draco's when she saw him grip his wand. It wasn't worth any more blood on either of their hands. "Is that so?"

"You won't kill me," he scoffed back.

Hermione's eyes narrowed. Usually after people spent that type of quality time with Dolohov or Bellatrix all they wanted was to die. This one didn't, though. Had Dolohov taken it easy on him?

"You're right, I won't." Hermione heard people start muttering all around the room. "You will stay in the dungeons, alive, and the Dark Lord will deal with you when he comes back. I'm sure he will appreciate you trying to kill me very much."

A mix of surprise and contempt appeared on the man's face as Bellatrix grinned hysterically at him. "Bella," Hermione started with a fake smile. "Do try not to kill him."