Disclaimer- this is getting old. NO I don't own it!

5

Last time-

Hermione and Ginny went shopping. Not much to be said.

Hermione had a pile of dresses next to her in various colors. Her favorite so far was the black silk tank dress that had a round neck that plummeted three inches down her front. The skirt stopped just before her knees, and a black evening scarf went around the shoulders. Hermione instantly fell in love with the dress, and knew that she had to have it. "Come on herms, you have to try at least one more dress on!" Ginny complained, watching Hermione grab her cloak. "No Ginny, I already found my dress!" Ginny pouted but grabbed her cloak so that they could pay and leave. After making it back a terrible 25 feet next door to the three broomsticks, they met up with Draco and Harry, who were on the other sides of the pub, glaring at each other. Hermione put her arms around Harry and dragged him over to Draco, where she put her other arm around him. "Come on you two. You have to get along or else I can't be your friend and your girlfriend." They glared at Hermione before looking at each other with a twitch in their eyes. Hermione smiled. "I don't know if you agreed to anything or not but…" she started shouting. "WE GOT A TWITCH HERE! A TWITCH! NOT A GLARE! A TWITCH!" she smirked and whispered to the two of them about, "an improvement." Harry smiled. "Can we go yet?" Draco, Ginny and Hermione all rolled their eyes before wandering out and back to the castle.

But what was unknown to everyone was that lucius was not dead… he was gone, but not dead… yet.

Marching back to the castle, Harry noticed that his scar was hurting. "OW! Damn scar!" everyone looked up at him. "The… scar again?" Ginny visibly paled, as did Hermione. "Is it bad for him?" Draco whispered to Hermione, noticing that she had paled. "Yeah it only happens when the dark lord is near or is feeling like beating the shit out of something and then killing it." Draco paled too. "Oh… uh…okay…" Hermione` twitched a small smile at Draco and then turned a new worried look to Harry. "Harry, are you worried??" Harry looked sarcastically at her. "No not at all." "Harry, you have to Dumbledor as soon as we get back to the school." Ginny was obviously scared as she said everything very quickly. They walked very quickly and silently back to the castle.

Dumbledor was walking past the front doors when the four opened the doors. "Professor! Wait just a second!" "Yeah, professor! I need to talk to you!" "Potter has a problem." "Professor!" they all clambered up to him. His eyes twinkled as he looked to one wind whipped face to the next. "Yes students?" Harry explained about how his scar hurt again, and left the group to go talk to Dumbledor and the heads of houses for extra safety precautions. The other three just stood there before shrugging and started wandering around the halls. Finally, Ginny, sick of walking and eager to hear what happened to Harry, left Hermione and Draco alone outside of the head rooms. Hermione threw her bag into her room before sitting on the squishy sofa next to Draco and stared at the wall a good five minutes before she pulled herself into Draco's lap. She leaned against his chest and closed her eyes, content. "Draco?" "Mmm?" Hermione opened her eyes and smiled. She traced his jaw line before giving him a light kiss. She suddenly got a look of worry. "Do you think that he's here?" Draco shifted his arms a little and resting his chin on her shoulder. "I think that he is out there somewhere, just not here… yet. Believe it or not I a little scared for Po-Harry's safety." Hermione nodded and shut her eyes as tight as they would go. After ten minutes of not talking, Draco stole a look at her eyes. 'She's such an angel…' he thought, staring at her beautiful face. He kissed her neck and softly chuckled when she sighed in her sleep. Soon, both of them were fast asleep in the common room.

Hermione woke up around eight in Draco's arms. She grinned to herself and ran to the shower. As soon as she opened the door chills raced up and down her spine. She could see Draco's limp body and smell the blood. She saw the broken wood from the door in the corner and the stained floor. She shivered again and grasped the sink for support. Hearing footsteps down the hall she gripped the sink harder. She didn't realize that it could only be Draco. The door clicked open and Draco stared at Hermione with her shut eyes and death grip on the sink. Chuckling, he put his arms around her waist and head on her shoulders. They stared at each other in the mirror. "Herms, are you okay?" She shivered, and cast him a quick worried look. I just had a, well… flashback to that night…" Draco smiled a little bit and turned her around in a big hug. "Its okay Herms. That was ages ago. Its all good now." Hermione smiled. 'Two weeks to the shocker' she thought, giving him a quick kiss and turning the water to the shower on. A tap came to the door, and a quick thud and flap of wings meant a letter. Draco turned to it, confused. After seeing the name written on the letter, he shot a glance at Hermione and ran out of the room to read it. Hermione stood there confused, and hurried after him. "Draco, who is that from?" After about five seconds, his voice filled the hall. "It's a letter from home. Just go take your shower. I'll get mine later." Hermione shrugged, but then remembered that the door was closed. "Okay…"

Draco smiled mentally as he heard her walking away. "Remind her to kiss her for being so gullible." The letter shocked him.

Draco-

Your father is here now. Be home for the new years and remember to give that mudblood a good sock to the nose. Nobody will beat a Malfoy. Lord Voldemort will be joining us on the New Year to discuss your training for being a death eater. Be here on the first or else you can count on not seeing the second.

Love from,

Lady Malfoy

"How dare he…" Draco muttered. Getting to his feet. He dressed in record timing, and was at the bathroom door banging on it. "Hermione! Hermione come here! Quick!" The pounding of the water stopped and the door opened to a soaking Hermione in a towel. Draco's spirits lifted for two seconds before plummeting back to the rocky bottom. "Herms, I have to go to Dumbledor! Personal emergency…" Hermione tensed a little. "Family?" "Yeah…" She relaxed and nodded before he raced to the portrait hole. "See you at breakfast!" The door closed and he was gone.

Hermione's P.O.V

What could startle Draco so much that he ran through the portrait hole to Dumbledor? Normally he is reluctant to go to the headmaster. But this is a family… emergency. I wonder why. Could something have happened to his mother? Could she be dead? She can't. Maybe I should go to his room and check if that letter is there. It might solve a lot of problems. I wonder what happened…

Hermione finished her shower and wandered into Draco's room. "The letter has got to be somewhere…" she ruffled papers as she went through the stack. "Where is it!" she had looked three times, and still no letter. She opened the drawers to his bedside cabinet and looked some more. "It cant be that hard to find…" There were several large books and a few envelopes, but none of them had the letter. "Err! He must have taken it!" She heard the door click and she jumped. "Oh god! Quick! Think!" She tossed the drawers closed and quickly sat on his bed. She saw his sad face looking down as he walked into the room. Darting his eyes up, he saw her sitting on his bed. Her guilty face was too easy to see. "Curious, aren't you." She smiled weakly as he sat down next to her. "Draco, what's wrong?" He shook his head and suddenly found the floor very interesting. Hermione didn't like being ignored. He jumped when he suddenly found her hands snaking around his neck and her pulling herself into his lap. "Draco… Why wont you tell me…?" she bit her lip and looked at him. Draco sighed and let the words from the letter tumble out. She was paled a little when he finished. "But Draco… are you going to go??" He gave a short laugh. "Dumbledor and I have it all sorted out. I'm going as a spy. I'll have to go along like I'm joining him, but I have a potion on me. Nothing can hurt me. Look. Take something and try to hurt me." Hermione sat there, not knowing what to say before lightly slapping him across the face. "Ouch!" she quickly brought her hand to her cheek. Draco smiled, unharmed, and Hermione clutched her cheek where the blow seemed to be twenty times stronger. "Damn!" "So you know how it would feel if Lucius or Voldemort tried the craticus curse? It would be hell. No. Worse than hell. It would be so bad that they would be scared to ever touch a wand again." Hermione nodded as the pain grew faint, and stood up. "Come on Mr. You-can't-touch-me. Breakfast wont last forever. They strode out together for their breakfast.

The next week and a half passed by without anything exciting happening. By the time December 23rd rolled around, the usual pre-Christmas fever danced around. Hermione and Draco helped set up the Christmas trees and put the ordainments on while the school buzzed with excitement. As they were sitting in the Head student's common room on the 24th with Harry and Ginny, they compared how many points they took off of students. "I took about twenty off with all the houses put together." Harry explained. Hermione and Draco snorted. "Are you kidding? I took twenty off of one student today! I think that I have taken off at least a hundred from all of the houses, and given twenty!" Draco rolled his eyes at Harry and muttered, "she even took points off from me when I enchanted mistletoe to follow her around so that I could kiss her whenever I wanted to…" Harry and Ginny snorted before they left. Draco kissed Hermione goodnight, and stalked off. Hermione sighed before going off to bed as well. She went to sleep contently, but she had a nagging voice in the back of her head mumbling every so often about new years…

A/N

So how did I do this time? I hope that it was LOADS better than the last chapter! BIG surprises next chapter! I'll get that up soon between my homework sometime…