Deciding to help Draco hadn't necessarily been an easy decision for Hermione, since she doubted that the Slytherin would even want her help. But whenever Hermione thought about just leaving him to fend for himself, she got this nagging feeling in her conscience that she knew wouldn't go away until she helped Draco. Of course, the first thing that she had to do was actually tell him who she was, which was more than the obnoxious know-it-all that he had always referred to her as. She was the person who he had unknowingly been communicating with through a magically enchanted book.

Every time Hermione thought about telling him the truth, she always chickened out at the last minute. Her Gryffindor bravado wasn't really coming through when she needed it to. Hermione had definitely wondered how the revealing conversation would go down. In some scenarios, Draco would be understanding and let her know what was so troubling. But then for the most part, the scenarios that she had imagined did not end in a good way. In one of them, Draco was so enraged by the fact that it was her who he had been communicating with that he dragged her straight to Voldemort and watched her as she was tortured, just like he did in her nightmare.

Although Draco might be a rotten turd, Hermione hoped that he at least wouldn't put her through that. When she was talking to Anonymous, it really did seem like they didn't want to do what they were being forced to do, so Hermione could only hope that her interpretations of Draco's intentions were correct. But first she had to tell him, which was proving to be difficult on its own. Despite the fact that Hermione had chickened out of confronting him numerous times, there were a few times when she had actually tracked him down with the intention of telling him, only for Draco to seemingly disappear into thin air.

So after nearly two weeks of no progress and awkward conversations with Anonymous through their journals, Hermione finally decided that she had procrastinated on her mission long enough. When it came to tracking Draco down, Hermione had been at a loss on how she was supposed to do that without him noticing her, until Hermione remembered the Marauder's Map and the invisibility cloak, which she ended up borrowing from Harry by saying that she would help him with his Malfoy stalking.

It became clear that Draco was definitely up to something, since he always seemed to go to the same place before his name would disappear. According to Harry, the map was supposed to show where everyone was at every moment, so it was impossible for Draco's name to disappear like it would. After being fed up of losing Draco at the same place every time, Hermione finally decided to actively follow him and find out just where he was disappearing to.

What soon became clear to Hermione was that Draco certainly wasn't disappearing out of the school, because it had completely slipped Hermione's mind as to what exactly was on this particular floor. Hermione mentally smacked herself when she realised that Draco was going to the Room of Requirement. How could she have forgotten that room, when she had spent so much time there the year before?

Whatever Draco was doing in the Room of Requirement, it was definitely secretive since it didn't take Hermione long to realise that he was having two people guard the entrance. They weren't anybody that Hermione remembered seeing before, but they weren't anybody that Hermione thought would help Draco Malfoy do his bidding. But as the days passed and Hermione made no progress with her attempts to contact Draco, she knew that she would have to do something to get her inside the Room of Requirement.

Thanks to some clever spell work, Hermione was able to distract the bodyguards so that she could enter the room after Draco in an attempt to trap him and coerce him into a confrontation. What she found inside the Room of Requirement certainly wasn't the training room that Hermione had used the year before. Instead, it was a room full of mess that Hermione suspected was the Room of Requirement in its original form. There really was anything and everything in this room, but Hermione wasn't here to borrow anything. She was here to confront Draco Malfoy no matter how terrifying that thought might've been.

"I can't fucking do it," she heard the laboured mutters of Draco.

Hermione took a deep breath and summoned all of her Gryffindor courage to make her presence known, "And what exactly would that be, Malfoy?"

Hermione had never seen anyone turn around so fast before in her life. The pure shock on Draco's face when he saw her standing there was obvious before it turned to pure rage, which immediately unsettled Hermione.

"Granger," he seethed. "What the fuck do you think you're doing in here? How do you even know about this place?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because I used this room as a hideout for my secret organisation last year? You were there when that hideous toad busted in and ruined everything."

"Well, you're going to ruin everything for me if you don't leave me alone," Draco snarled.

"And just what is it that's gotten you so shaken, Anonymous?" Hermione asked, hoping that he would catch onto her obvious hint.

Draco's eyes widened more than Hermione ever thought possible. There was a tense silence that came over them before Hermione could feel the rage building up inside Draco, prompting her to brace herself for the worst. To Hermione's complete surprise, he started laughing. But it wasn't any ordinary laugh. It was the kind of laugh that sent shivers down Hermione's spine.

"Out of everyone in the fucking universe, it had to be you, didn't it?" Draco spat. "How did you even get in here? This place is supposed to be guarded!"

"Whoever your guards are, they did a terrible job since I only had to do a small bit of magic to have them distracted so that I could slip inside," Hermione replied.

"How did you find me?" Draco demanded.

"Let's just say that you're not as discrete with your secretiveness as you might think," Hermione said.

"Fine, Granger. You caught me. I'm using the Room of Requirement. Now fuck off!" Draco yelled.

"And just what purpose do you have for this room?" Hermione wondered.

"None. Of. Your. Fucking. Business," Draco growled.

"I would appreciate it if you refrained from swearing at me with every damn sentence," Hermione stated.

Draco glared at her, "If you're so bothered by my fucking swearing then fuck off."

"No, I won't," Hermione stood her ground. "You don't intimidate me, Draco Malfoy. You may have in the past, but not anymore."

"Why? Because I'm your precious Anonymous?" Draco drawled.

"Perhaps, but mostly because you have certainly lost your intimidation and fear factor this year. You just look like a mess, even now as you try your hardest to threaten me and tell me what to do," Hermione stated.

"You've never been one to do what people tell you to do anyways, Granger," Draco said.

"Exactly, which is why I won't just leave because you're telling me to," Hermione remarked.

"If you're not gonna fucking leave, then I'll do that myself. You have no business here, Granger. And if you knew what was I doing then you certainly wouldn't want to help me either," Draco barked.

"Just please, let me help you," Hermione pleaded as she grabbed hold of his left arm in an attempt to stop him from leaving.

Draco hissed as she grabbed hold of his arm and gave her a deathly glare. He then grabbed her other arm in retaliation and pinned her up against the nearest cupboard, his steel grey eyes maintaining their fierce glare.

"I don't want your fucking help, Granger! So do us both a favour and leave me the fuck alone because there is nothing that you can do, not that I even want it from you anyways," Draco snarled.

Hermione gulped, "Malfoy, I remember what you said to me in those journals. Whatever it is that you have to do, I know that it's against your own will. You don't want this. I can help you. If anyone can help you, it's me."

"Nobody can help me, especially you," Draco said through his gritted teeth, his grip tightening on Hermione's wrist.

"You don't have to face this alone, Malfoy," Hermione insisted.

Draco scoffed, "That's easy for you to say."

"No, it's not. You don't have to face this alone if you'll just let me help you. Please," Hermione pleaded.

"I'm only going to say this one more time, Granger," Draco growled as he pulled out his wand and pointed at Hermione's chest. "Stay away from me. Forget about me. Forget about the stupid books that we never should've messed with to begin with. I never wanted any part of you to begin with, and I certainly don't want any part of you now. So just fuck off."

"Or else what?" Hermione tried her best to sound intimidating.

"Oh, Granger. You don't even want to think of what I'm capable of," Draco chuckled darkly.

"I'm not scared of you, Draco Malfoy," Hermione said.

"That's your third mistake then," Draco snarled.

"What were my first two?" Hermione asked.

Draco rolled his eyes, "Not giving up on the stupid books and interfering with my life. Now give up on the stupid books and stop interfering with my life because after this, I'm never going to speak to you again."

"I won't stop trying," Hermione insisted.

"Just forget about it, for fucks sake!" Draco roared.

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "If you want me to forget about it so badly, then why don't you just obliviate me?"

For a moment, Hermione seriously thought that Draco was going to do it when he grabbed hold of his wand. But then he just gave her one last stern glare before storming off, leaving Hermione slightly frazzled from the turn of events. Realistically, she hadn't expected him to react well to her identity. Despite that, Hermione hadn't expected him to actually hurt her, since she had been surprised by the force that he had used to squeeze her wrist which had left some slight bruising.

All Hermione could do was stand there in wonder as she wondered what on earth Draco Malfoy was up to. Whatever it was, Hermione knew that it couldn't be good. But despite her reservations about getting involved with Draco's mess, Hermione had said that she would help him, and she could already feel her conscience nagging at her when she considered just letting it go.

Damn her conscience.

~*•°•*~

True to his word, Draco went out of his way to avoid Hermione after the incident in the Room of Requirement. In any of their classes together, he would sit as far away from her as possible and wouldn't even look at her. Even his rude remarks and bullying behaviour towards her had stopped. In a strange way, Hermione missed it. At least it was better than him just obviously ignoring her.

Along with ignoring her in person, Draco also wasn't responding to her in the book. Truthfully, Hermione had expected that to happen. However, that didn't make it any easier. She was trying to reach out to him, but all he was doing was pushing her away. Hermione had probably taken up about two pages alone in her book that was just her trying to get Draco to write back to her, only to get nothing in return.

As she tried getting some sort of response from Draco, Hermione was also contemplating what could be bothering him so much. There was a lot to consider, but what had stood out to Hermione was what she saw when she confronted him in the Room of Requirement. At the time, Hermione hadn't even paid any sort of attention to what he was doing, but upon some reflection, she realised that he had been standing near a vanishing cabinet. Hermione remembered it because of what happened last year when Fred and George managed to get Graham Montague stuck in there when he tried to take points from them. Although Montague had managed to get out via apparition, his exit from the vanishing cabinet proved to be nearly fatal.

"What is he even doing with it?" Hermione muttered to herself as she mulled over the situation in her room by herself.

Of all the things, that was not what Hermione expected him to be messing around with. But then Hermione remembered what the purpose of the vanishing cabinet was actually for. To provide a pathway to a twin somewhere. There was also the fact that Draco had been poking around with the vanishing cabinet at Borgin and Burkes before the school year began. This left her with more questions than answers. Was he trying to repair the vanishing cabinet in the Room of Requirement? Why would he be trying to repair it? Who would he be trying to let in?

"Death Eaters," Hermione whispered, remembering how Bellatrix Lestrange and Fenrir Greyback had been amongst the people who had accompanied Draco inside Borgin and Burkes.

It would make sense, given how nobody was able to apparate inside Hogwarts which was what made it safe from Death Eaters and other outsiders. The vanishing cabinet would be the most discrete way to enter the castle without being spotted. But surely that alone wouldn't be enough to have Draco as rattled as he seemed to be. Whatever he was involved with had to be something greater, had to be something more devastating than simply providing a passage for Death Eaters to enter the castle.

That's when it hit Hermione.

All throughout the year, Hermione had been dismissing Harry's concerns that Draco was officially a Death Eater. She had dismissed Harry's concerns about what Draco was up to, and about what he had done. Only now she was beginning to realise them. The mead. The necklace. Katie. Ron. It was all beginning to make sense now as the pieces slowly came together in Hermione's mind.

When they saw Katie with the cursed necklace, she had been insistent that it had to be delivered to Dumbledore. That was before she touched it and cursed herself, preventing her from succeeding in delivering it to Dumbledore. Then there was the poisoned mead that had nearly killed Ron. Slughorn had admitted that he'd intended to give it as a gift to Dumbledore. Had he done so; Dumbledore would have been the one to be poisoned. So unless Hermione was jumping to unrealistic conclusions like Harry, Draco was faced with the task of assassinating Dumbledore.

Now that would certainly be enough to rattle anyone.

"No wonder he seems so stressed," Hermione muttered.

Knowing that she had to do something, Hermione pulled out her book and wrote down at the bottom of the last page.

I know what you're up to, Malfoy. And as disturbing as it is, my offer to help you still stands.

As she had written it at the bottom of the page, Hermione waited for the writing on the pages to erase themselves as they normally did. Only that's not what happened. Hermione just stared at the book, waiting and waiting for something to happen. But the words remained the same. There was no free space, and Hermione had no idea what was happening. This was unlike anything that Hermione had experienced with the book so far. Why weren't the words being erased?

In the back of her mind, Deidre Dalelio's words became a reminder: I mean that they can only correspond with each other for a certain amount of time before they become useless and are just like any other ordinary book without special powers.

"No, no, no, no!" Hermione exclaimed. "Please don't tell me that it's finished. Not now when I need it most."

Desperate to get some kind of response from the book, Hermione filled up every last space on the two pages, only to get nothing in return. With a frustrated sigh, Hermione threw the book onto the floor as she slid down the wall. That was it. The book was finished. Of course it had to happen now, and there was nothing she could do.

A sudden thumping noise caught Hermione's attention, and she glanced forward, only to narrow her eyebrows in suspicion when she saw the journal bouncing around on the floor. Carefully, Hermione approached the journal that simply wouldn't stop bouncing. Just as Hermione was about to bend down to pick it up, the journal burst open and she found herself being slapped in the face with a piece of paper. As Hermione pulled it away, her eyes widened as she recognised the words on the paper. The words of the very first message that they had ever sent to each other.

I'm only now just starting to realise how royally fucked I am. I never should've allowed myself to be dragged into this fucking mess to begin with, but I can't go back and change it now. What the fuck am I going to do?

You should watch your foul language.

As Hermione looked over the rest of the paper, she realised that it was definitely the first message that they had sent to each other. But how was this possible? Hermione thought that their words were supposed to disappear, not reappear. She then glanced back down at the book that continued to jump around before more papers started shooting out of it and all over the room at an uncontrollable pace.

It was unlike anything that Hermione had ever seen from a book before. Granted, this wasn't just any normal book. Even with this book, it was hard to believe that it was just spewing out paper after paper until finally, it stopped. The papers had certainly made a mess of Hermione's dorm, so she quickly sprung into action and made sure that she collected every piece of paper. The more papers that Hermione found, the more confused she became as she realised that on every piece of paper was a conversation that Hermione had had with Draco as Anonymous.

"How is this possible?" Hermione wondered before her gaze landed on the last exchange that they had had before she found out who Anonymous was.

What is it going to take for me to make you realise that I can help you?

For me to trust that you're genuine.

Considering the fact that they had practically been enemies for the last six years, Hermione could understand why Draco Malfoy would be so sceptical of her intentions with him. Of course he wouldn't just naturally trust her despite the fact that they had been communicating through journals for almost the entire year. She had been expecting too much of him to just trust her with open arms. If Hermione was Draco, she'd be apprehensive of him too. For all he knew, she would just throw him straight to the wolves.

Only that wasn't what Hermione planned on doing. Now that she had figured out just what Draco was up to; she was even more determined to help him now that the fate of the wizarding world could depend on what she did next. If Draco was successful in assassinating Dumbledore, there was no telling what that would mean for everyone. But above all, Hermione refused to let him become a killer because although Draco Malfoy might be a lot of things, Hermione didn't think that he was a murderer.

And despite everything that he had put her through, Hermione refused to let him go through that if she could stop it.


Well, this was certainly an eventful chapter. Draco was supposed to find out that Hermione was his pen pal in the previous chapter, but the timing and spacing of it didn't seem right so I thought it was most suited for this chapter. Not only does Draco now know who she is, Hermione now knows what he's been up to. But they're books are practically useless now after they've reached their limit, so what will this mean for them now? And I'm kinda feeling a little iffy about my writing of the Dramione interactions so far so let me know how you think I've done in that area.