My continued thanks for your lovely reviews, follows and favourites. I really hope that my slightly longer than usual updates are not detracting you from the story. I know it's not a heavy plot, but combining two such fictions I want to at least try and do them both justice, so thanks for sticking with me. As always apologies for any errors etc etc...ENJOY...

"That's a nasty little habit you have there, listening at keyholes." Sandor Sirron's voice was unforgiving and sneering, laced with an "I knew it tone".

Hermione found the fear coursing through her blood replaced by anger and revulsion, his clammy hand on her, exacerbating both. Perhaps it was fortuitous that the person "catching" her as it were was Sandor Sirron, his uncanny knack of being able to irritate and repulse her all at once, working very much in the young witch's favour.

She spun around to face him with such ferocity that his stubby fat fingers were forced to relinquish their grasp on her bare arm. The indentation of his hand however remained on her skin, leaving an angry red mark in their wake, Hermione felt as if she had been branded.

Despite his bulky stature, the hateful man was swift, and not distracted for a moment, his wand now coming to rest against her jaw. Hermione's brown eyes narrowed indignantly at him and she tried to keep her voice as steady and even as she could.

"And that is a nasty little habit you have there too Mister Sirron."

Hermione tilted her head definitely with her words, the action allowing a few tendrils of her hair to escape from the elegant chignon it had been styled into, but more frighteningly causing Sirron's wand to drop to her throat.

Still she maintained her composure, it was hardly the first time the Unspeakable had found herself in such a precarious position, and hopefully it wouldn't be the last.

"Grabbing women without warning or their consent." She spat the words at him contemptuously, showing him her disgust at the implication.

Sirron remained as undeterred and defiant as Hermione, puffing his chest out and edging a step closer to the young witch, his dark wand pressing harder against her pulsing jugular.

"Or perhaps you save that for those with whom you don't get what you want."

In case he was in any doubt what she meant, Hermione venomously clarified her point, although with a wand at her throat she really was pushing her luck. Goading the odious Sandor Sirron, might not be her wisest course of action just now, but she remained unflinching. Hermione was not going to concede an inch of her ground or show him any weakness. He had after all caught her doing nothing untoward, save of course walking down a hotel corridor, which could hardly be considered a crime. Moments before with her ear pressed to the door… well that would have been suspicious and a tad more difficult to explain, but he hadn't, she bristled at the thought, standing even taller than usual in her strappy sandals, bringing her almost to his height.

Her narrowed unblinking gaze remained fixed on the bald man. An angry muscle pulsed franticly in his jowly face and his lips curled. Hermione felt the cool tip of his wand sink further into her flesh and despite herself she swallowed hard, her brain racing for a way out. Dare she turn on those spikey heels and just walk away from him? It was a hotel after all, it was a very public hallway, would he actually have the nerve to do anything to harm her, draw any unwanted attention to himself or his criminally minded boss? But she knew nothing about her adversary or the lengths he was prepared to go to. Hermione weighed up her options and the situation she found herself in, it was a calculated risk, but she wasn't entirely sure it was one she was prepared to take. The fact that she had to think twice about it told her, no she shouldn't. RM always taught his Unspeakables, if you have to think twice about a question, the answer was always no, she'd never gone against his words and now was certainly not a good time to start.

Her fingers drummed lightly against the evening bag she still carried, unfortunately there was nothing inside from SIDD that would help her, actually there was nothing of much use at all inside the extremely small bag except her lipstick and a tissue. Her other hand shifted casually against the shimmering silk of her dress, in the concealed pocket was her own wand, Hermione could feel the outline of the slim vine wood as she pretended to smooth red material. Again she contemplated the situation, Sirron's wand was still at her throat, not matter how skilled and fast she was, in the time it would take her to draw it, he could have hexed her or worse, it wasn't worth taking the chance, and duelling with the man, would make her actually look guilty of something. Instead she bided her time, continuing to stare him out and wondering just what he was planning on doing with her.

From the room behind Sandor Sirron, Hermione could hear muted voices, most of them were drifting away, presumably through another doorway, back to the Ice Palace and the party, but two became louder, more audible. These two more distinguishable voices came towards her and Sirron, their quiet conversation was accompanied by a familiar tapping sound against the polished wooden floor, Hermione knew without a thought, it wasn't anyone's heels.

Lucius Malfoy's silver tipped, ebony cane clicked against the hard wood, just like her heels and just as it had done on the cobbled stone in the Department of Mysteries, many years before as he'd moved slowly and deliberately towards her, Harry and their friends. His movement now, as he accompanied Julius Nihil, was just as slow, just as deliberate and equally as threatening, but without the mocking laughter and without his fellow Death Eaters. Hermione however found herself in exactly the same precarious predicament, held captive by a foul man with a wand at her throat. For the first time she felt a real tremor of fear race through her blood, her mouth became dry and a bead of sweat trickled between her breasts.

Two hazel and two silver grey eyes took in the scene before them, neither betraying an ounce of emotion, the faces of Lucius Malfoy and Julius Nihil remaining impassive, if perhaps a little curious.

"Lucius?" Julius Nihil directed his curiosity at the blonde, as if were down to him to provide an explanation as to what was happening.

The former Death Eater's pale eyes drifted unhurriedly, coldly between his friend and Hermione. His lips were set in a thin stern line, his nostrils flaring as if he had encountered an unpleasant smell. His mouth curving into a hateful sneer as he took a step closer to Hermione and her captor, his cane once again clicking with ominous familiarity on the hard floor.

Neither the Unspeakable or Hermione deluded themselves as to which side of the fence Lucius Malfoy would come down on, holding her breath and waiting for him to direct the question she knew was coming, at her, her mind racing for plausible justification as to why she was here and just what was going on.

"Sirron, what is the meaning of this?" His voice was as cold as his eyes.

Hermione was somewhat astonished that she was not on the receiving end of his initial interrogation.

"I caught her out here…snooping." He announced proudly, jabbing his wand harder into Hermione's neck.

Lucius's clipped voice dripped with more disdain than usual.

"Snooping." Her repeated the word as if it were alien to him or had been uttered in a foreign language.

His now slate grey eyes, this time moved to Hermione, then to Julius Nihil, finally returning to the fat man. His tenor now impatient and angry, speaking to Sirron in a way that suggested he was a complete idiot.

"Miss Granger is not only a friend of mine, but also a guest at this hotel. I would therefore suggest Sirron that you lower your wand."

Sirron glanced anxiously at Julius Nihil, his hazel eyes were narrowed and suspicious, but he nodded at his associate, who did as Lucius requested and lowered his wand.

"So Sirron please… define snooping." He asked with acerbic irritation.

As Lucius resumed his grilling of Sandor Sirron, Hermione's mind continued to race, at some point the line of questioning would undoubtably fall in her direction and she would need a convincing excuse as to why she had left the party and just what she was doing here.

Sirron glared at the tall blonde, clearly objecting to the fact that he was the one being cross examined. His gazed moved to his boss, who seemed to be waiting just as patiently as Lucius for a response to the posed question.

"She was loitering out here." He snapped, but with a decidedly nervous edge.

"Listening." His slimy voice dropped to a hushed, but more confident tone.

"She could have overheard, she could suspect…"

The puffed up cornflake did not elaborate, knowing his abbreviated sentence was enough for the other two men.

Julius Nihil returned his wary suspicious gaze to Lucius, clearly Sirron's words had credence and the criminal mastermind was not happy.

The sound of Lucius Malfoy's mirthless, patronising laughter reverberated along the hallway.

"Could!" Lucius again repeated Sirron's words as if they had been spoken in Parseltongue.

"Sirron, the walls in this hotel are made of something a lot thicker than parchment, the doors are solid oak."

The derision in his tone was embarrassingly scathing.

"Miss Granger would have to have the exceptionally good hearing of a bat to have heard even muffled tones. If anything has aroused her suspicions about whatever, I would think that it is man she hardly knows accosting her in a hotel corridor and thrusting a wand to her throat."

Whichever side of the fence Lucius Malfoy was coming down on, Hermione was grateful for both his argument and the breathing space he gave her.

"Did you even think it might be prudent to ask Miss Granger what she was doing here?"

She saw Sandor Sirron shift awkwardly and Hermione decided to jump in quickly, not wanting her silence to be construed as guilt in anyway.

"No he bloody well didn't." She said her anger evident and directed at all three men.

"He came up behind me, grabbed me by the arm, accused me eavesdropping and then stuck his wand in my neck." She fired a hateful look at the man in the ill-fitting tuxedo.

"And were you Hermione?"

It was Julius Nihil who asked the question, this time in a softly menacing tone. For the first time, Hermione felt a little scared of the man who was at the top of the Ministry's most wanted list.

She chose her words with extreme care, not wanting to inadvertently implicate herself in any way.

"Eavesdropping on what exactly?" She put the bludger back in their pitch.

"If you must know I was bored silly." She looked sheepishly at Lucius for effect, wrinkling her nose and tucking the rogue strand of escaped hair behind her ear.

"Kind as it was for you to invite me to your glamorous party Lucius, I don't actually know anyone."

She shrugged her shoulders, again for effect.

"You hadn't introduced me to any of your friends, except for the ones you then left with. A girl can only drink so much expensive pink champagne, so I thought I'd come and get a drink in the bar here, I might not know anyone here either, but at least the atmosphere was more…friendly."

Lucius threw a scathing look at Sandor Sirron, who had the good grace to look more than a little uncomfortable.

Julius Nihil, whilst looking convinced by her words and a little annoyed himself at the overzealous fat man, spoke furtively and inaudibly to the blonde at his side. His face gave nothing away, but she could see something in his cold eyes, her witch's instinct told her it wasn't good.

"If is that what you want Julius"

Lucius queried quietly.

The other man nodded decisively, looking coldly in her direction. "It is Lucius, better to be safe than sorry, we don't want anything going wrong now."

Hermione definitely didn't like the sound of that.

"Please don't take this personally Hermione." Julius Nihil said without explaining further, in that same softly menacing tone.

"She's your guest, your friend Lucius, deal with her."

"Of course, as you wish Julius."

Lucius turned back towards Hermione, his dark formidable presence even more imposing than ever, another bead of sweat trickled between her breasts and she shifted uneasily. If as Hermione suspected, Lucius Malfoy did know more about what she did for a living than he should, she could be in real trouble and she certainly didn't like the look or feel of this at all. Whatever had transpired between herself and the now supposedly respectable hotel proprietor, she doubted it was going to have any bearing on what happened next and was definitely not going to get in the way of the bigger plans Julius Nihil had. Hermione could now clearly see where the blonde's loyalties lay as curled his long fingers slowly around the silver serpent head and drew his wand from its ebony cane, the chips of glinting emerald in his hand. Earlier she had seen a brief reminiscence of the malevolent pureblood she had known as a child, now he was here in earnest. Nothing had changed at all.

"Incarcerous" He said quietly, pointing the shorter length of elm at her.

Hermione felt a thin rope or cord of some sort slither magically around her wrists, it bit into her flesh, much more harshly than Sirron's fingers had, and bound them so tightly together, she dropped her evening bag, it clattered nosily onto the wooden floor, the sound echoing in the silent hallway, the minimalistic contents spilling out. The magical restraint constricted tighter still, causing Hermione to cry out in pain, the Dark Wizard was clearly taking no chances with a witch of Hermione's abilities.

Again her fear was overtaken by that much more powerful emotion, this time it was an almost uncontrollable anger which boiled her blood, both at the man who had shackled her and at herself for being so blind and so very stupid. Hermione's brown eyes glinted furiously as she glared at the sneering, arrogant and deceitful blonde.