A/N: Hello! Thank you so much for being patient. I'll try to get the next Ch. Up soon and make this one slightly longer.
Draco was lounging in the Slytherin common room, when he heard shouts coming from outside the portrait. He recognized the voices as Hermione's and Crabbe's.
"Let me in! I have to see Draco!" Hermione yelled.
"Slytherins never let mudbloods into their common room. We want to keep our floors clean." He argued.
"Let me inside you stupid future death-eater! Why are you even going to become a death-eater?! Eventually, Voldemort will lose all of his power again and start sacrificing anyone! Including your own parents! Do you not realize that they'll be dying for evil?" Hermione protested. Draco heard a smack and then a thud. He ran outside the portrait and saw Hermione on the ground.
"Never insult my master!" Crabbe yelled. Draco had never thought that Crabbe would hit anyone, unless instructed to.
"What the heck have you done?!" Draco yelled, as he kneeled over an unconscious Hermione.
"Just doing my job." Crabbe said, and when he turned around so that his sleeve fell back, Draco saw the dark mark adorning his arm. Draco shoved Crabbe against the wall with his arm.
"Stay away from her. If you EVER touch her again, I will beat the crap out of you." Draco threatened, his eyes cold and unforgiving. Crabbe looked between Draco and Hermione and grinned.
"My master will hear of this." He said, and walked briskly away. Hermione's jaw unhinged.
"He's not really going to tell, is he?" She asked.
"I don't know." Draco replied, his face full of worry and foreboding. He held Hermione against his chest, and glared at the mark on her cheek that was beginning to bruise. "Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Hermione said. "Oh! I almost forgot! We need to get to the library right now! I found an inscription on the amulet you sent me! I think I know the language." Come on!" Hermione pulled, a very confused Draco down the hall, to the library. They went inside and Hermione immediately rushed over to the farthest table. They looked through book after book, but found nothing.
"There!" Hermione yelled, pointing a finger at the book that she had. Madame Pince gave her a stare that could kill. "It's Italian! I knew I'd seen that language somewhere before!" They translated as fast as they could. It took awhile since neither of them spoke Italian, but luckily, Hermione knew a translation spell.
"A forgotten art,
will bring love for two,
and with an enemy's sacrifice,
the evil one's reign will be through."
Hermione and Draco looked between each other and back at the translation.
"Do have any idea what that means?" Hermione asked.
"Not in the slightest." Draco replied. There was nothing they could do now, but wait, until the purpose of the amulet became clearer.
The next morning, when Hermione went down to breakfast, no one talked to her, not even Harry or Ron. "What's wrong with you guys?" She said, nudging Ron. He got up and stormed out. "Harry" She asked tentatively. He turned to face her, and she could see anger and betrayal in his eyes.
"How could you?" He asked.
"How could I what?" She replied
"You know. Play around with a Malfoy. Tell me the truth Hermione. Are you just fooling around with him or do you actually like him?" Harry pushed on.
"I…." She started. She didn't know. He'd been friendly towards her and stood up for her. "He's my friend."
"Traitor." Harry spat at her, before leaving the table as well. Draco watched all this from a distance wondering what they were saying, while Blaise tried to carry on a conversation in front of him.
"Draco, honey. Will you be my boyfriend?" Blaise asked, in a sweet voice. That snapped Draco back to attention.
"Sorry. I'm taken." Draco said. "At least my heart is." And he mimicked Harry and Ron, by walking out of the hall. Hermione saw Draco leave, and followed. Draco was in the hall with one arm braced against the wall, and tears flowing down his cheeks. Hermione wrapped her arms around Draco's waist from behind, causing him to jump. When he realized who it was, he wrapped his arms around her as well. They stood in each other's arms for a good while, just enjoying being near one another. "Everything will be fine. I promise." He said tightening his grip on her. His words were firm and sure, but his instinct told him differently.
Almost in a flash, a bag was over Draco's head, and an unfriendly arm snaked around Hermione's waist.
"Why, hello there mudblood. You're coming with us." A cold voice whispered in her ear. Hermione screamed as loud as she could, praying that someone would hear her. She kept yelling, until one of the masked men, put a hand over her mouth. She bit his hand, and tried yelling again, but fell unconscious as the man stupefied her. He picked her up, and carried her out of Hogwarts. They didn't revive her for a good six hours, and by that time, she was tired and soon fell asleep.
Screams awoke her from her dream. Then, she realized that the screams were her own. Pain shot through her body, every nerve tensing as the torture snaked its way through her torso and up to her throat. She felt as if she were being strangled. She couldn't even scream anymore. All she could do was writhe claw the ground, as the pain drove so deep into her flesh, that she was positive it would kill her. The pain stopped, when a silky voice said, "So Hogwarts's most clever witch couldn't find a way out of the cruciatus curse? Tsk tsk, Granger. How will you ever stay alive?" A sharp intake of air came from her throat as she was roughly kicked in the stomach. She rolled over on her side, but the person just kicked her again, this time in the back.
"Who the hell are you?!" she yelled.
"Why don't you ask Draco?" The voice said. A light appeared on the ground a little way away from her. A crumpled figure in black was sprawled out onto the ground.
"Draco!" She screamed. She crawled over to him and put her head on his chest, to make sure that he was breathing. ""What'd you do to him?"
"We knocked him out. Maybe permanently." The person replied. Hermione lunged at him, anger swelling in her chest. She clamped her hands around his throat. Another pair of hands grabbed her and pulled her off.
"Don't touch him or else he'll make sure that you never touch anything again, make no mistake." A woman's voice said. She pulled her hood back, revealing a pug face and long dark hair.
"Pansy." Hermione spat.
"Granger." Pansy said, almost calmly.
"Where are we, Pansy? Tell me the truth." Hermione said.
"Paradise, Granger. Well, for those of us who are loyal to the dark lord." Pansy said. The whole place lit up with candles.
"Oh crap." Hermione muttered as she realized that they were in a clearing in the Forbidden Forest, with no less than a hundred Death Eaters surrounding them. She covered Draco with her body, protecting him from anything that might happen. Simultaneously, all of the death eaters raised their wands.
Meanwhile, Harry and Ron, along with the rest of the Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs, were trying to find Hermione. The Slytherins were busy trying to find Draco. They had notified the professors, which were now, out looking for them. "We should never have gotten mad at Hermione. The last thing I said to her was 'Traitor' and now she's missing. What if this is all our fault? What if she ran off with Draco and they got killed? Or HE killed her?" Harry rushed on.
"Harry. You're ranting. Just calm down. The professors will find her." Ron said.
Coincidentally enough, Dumbledore walked back inside the Great Hall. "I have an announcement to make. The professors and I, all feel that we should let you know why the dementors are here. They're searching for a very dangerous object that was left here, thousands of years ago." He said. Harry and Ron knew what Hermione would do. The library. But alas, they were obviously not Hermione. They ran up to her room, hoping to find something that would give them a clue as to where she was. She basically, tore her whole bedroom apart, before they found a note from Draco.
"Amulet?" Ron read aloud. Ron and Harry looked at each other and then sped off out of her room and down the stairs. They ran as fast as possible, their robes swishing behind them. "Professor Dumbledore!" Harry yelled.
"Professor!" Ron echoed. Dumbledore stopped in his tracks, at the two Gryffindors burst into the Great Hall, yelling. They dashed over to Dumbledore and handed him the note. They both stood, hunched over and breathing rapidly, as Dumbledore read the note. Dumbledore dropped the note.
"They found it." He muttered.
"Draco. Please Draco wake up." Hermione pleaded. "Draco, please." She was starting to panic. The Death eaters were closing in on them. Hermione got up and was going to curse some of them, when she realized that her wand was gone.
"Looking for this?" Pansy said, twirling Hermione's wand in her fingers. Hermione felt her courage slipping. Without her wand she was nothing. Who was she? Just some small school girl. Without her magic and her wand, she was a nobody. Unless she was with Draco. With Draco she was loved. Of course, her parents loved her as well, but it was nice to know that someone else cared about her enough to die for her. She had to do the same for him. She was ready to die for him. She saw Pansy's mouth open, and begin to utter the killing curse. "Avada Kedavra!" She screamed. Hermione jumped onto Draco, shielding him from harm. The last thing she heard was Draco's faint heartbeat and a yell before she fainted from fear.
White blinded her. Everything around her was white, except two patches of black and red. "Harry? Ron?" Hermione mumbled, still drowsy with exhaustion. Their faces came into focus and Hermione groaned. "What happened?" she asked. "Where's Draco?" Harry and Ron both looked towards the bed next to her, where Draco lay still unconscious. Madame Pomfrey bustled in, kicking Ron and Harry out. "Will he be ok?" Madame Pomfrey didn't answer for quite some time.
"He's still knocked out. We don't know what spell they used on him." She replied. Madame Pomfrey administered her medicine to Hermione and left. Hermione got off her bed and walked over to Draco's. He looked like an angel sleeping there. His white-blonde hair falling over one eye and his lips slightly parted. Ignoring her thoughts of what Madame Pomfrey would say, she climbed onto his bed and lay down, resting her head on his chest. She fell asleep feeling his warmth enveloping her body, and his breath playing on her ear, like the first time they had come into contact that year. When she woke up, she could still feel his heartbeat pulsing through her body, as if it were her own. Then, she felt someone stroking her hair. She looked up and saw two bright gray eyes staring down at her.
"Draco!" she yelled. "You're awake!" She planted little kisses all over his face, finally coming to rest at his mouth. After they broke apart, they heard voices outside the room.
"We have to tell him." A voice said.
"No. Give them some time." The other voice said. With that, the curtain was flung open, and Hermione tried to escape from the bed. "No. Stay there, Miss Granger." Snape said, walking inside. "You're going to need to be here with him." He continued, nodding towards Draco. "Draco. We have some bad news. Your father is dead." Draco eyes turned hard and cold.
"And this is bad news?" Draco said, in a menacing voice. "No doubt he was part of the little charade where both Hermione AND I almost got killed."
"You're right Draco. He was there." Snape paused.
"I knew it. I knew that arse was there." Draco fumed.
"You don't understand, Draco. Yes, your father was there. That's true…."
"But he saved you life."