Draco stared blankly at the cell door. Boredom. He wondered briefly if you could die from boredom. Draco felt like he was dying, he felt unhealthy, under exercised, weak, sore, and hungry. Not to mention the unending boredom. Hermione was asleep. He wished she would wake up so he could talk to her. He didn't mind if she was mad at him for getting angry with her. His anger at her for saying he was like a Gryfindor had quickly faded. She was right about the fact that he had changed though, that fact that his anger had faded was proof in itself. Torturing, instead of hardening him, seemed to have softened him.

Draco looked over at Hermione; she laid on her side comfortably in the straw, most of it pushed into a pile to support her head. One arm lay casually over her side, the other underneath the straw under her head. Draco found himself gazing at her face, her smooth face, dirty, but still beautiful. Her eyes were closed peacefully, her mouth open slightly as she breathed, her chest rising slowly up and down.

He sighed and smiled to himself. Who would have thought that Draco Malfoy would fall in love with Hermione Granger? He loved her, he was sure of it now. He could watch her forever as she talked, her chin set stubbornly and her eyebrows slightly narrowed plotting on how to get out. The sound of her voice was like the most beautiful music he'd ever heard. She wasn't at all snotty or a know it all. She was smart, she had a clear head and didn't back down in the face of danger. Her will was unbreakable.
Draco was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts as lights flickered on. He saw Hermione stir then sit up rubbing her eyes. She pushed her hair behind her ears then looked out through the cell door.

"Food?" she asked hopefully looking at him. Draco felt his breath quicken and quickly looked away from her shrugging; he wasn't sure whether they'd turned on the brights or the dims. He eased himself to his feet steadying himself as black spots swam before his eyes. They disappeared a moment later and he walked over to the door peering out. The black forms of death eaters paused at each cell door tossing something in and pouring water from pitchers.

Draco sighed relieved and sat back down scooting backwards, "Yes, they're bringing food."

"Good," she said then asked, "Draco?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry," she told him, "I didn't mean, about Gryfindor, what I meant to say is that, your nicer, I, don't hate you like I used to. I don't know if its because you've changed or if its because I've actually gotten to know you."

Draco looked at Hermione rather surprised by what she said, "I think its because I changed."

Hermione nodded thinking of the many times Draco had called her mudblood, but since the time she'd first seen him in this cell he had not called her mudblood once.

"Listen, Hermione," he said, "I'm sorry for all the times I've, been mean to you at Hogwarts. I just wanted to be like my dad, but he's dead, and now I know I don't ever want to be like him."

Hermione nodded then said, "I think the whole houses idea is rather stereotyped."

Draco thought a moment about this and found she was right. Most people categorized Slytherins as mean, Gryfindors as brave (the house you want to be in), Ravenclaws as the smarties, and Hufflepuffs as all the dumb people, which in reality it was nothing like that. Of course that wasn't going to stop people from thinking about it like that.

"I agree," he said finally, "There shouldn't even be more than one house, maybe just teams you know? The Slytherin team, and so on, but there wouldn't be different dormitories, just divided by year and gender."

Hermione nodded, "It's a good idea, but I doubt we could get others to agree and even get it to happen."

Draco suddenly smiled wryly, "Look at us, talking about changes to be made to Hogwarts while we're stuck down here more than likely to be killed."

Hermione nodded and frowned, "It's still good to talk about good things."
Draco nodded and found him self admiring her way of never looking on the bad side. She never made sarcastic comments about dying, like he did often. She would never fall for him. He was Draco Malfoy. She had said she no longer hated him though? That meant she liked him, right?

Draco pushed away his thoughts frustrated, no one had told him love could be so infuriating, let alone happen in the strangest of places.

***

Harry sat on his bed and glanced at his watch once again. Nearly midnight. He slipped through the curtains surrounding his bed slid on his invisibility cloak. Then he shook Ron awake and hiding under the cloak together they made their way out through the portrait hole through hallways and finally outside. Harry flung off the cloak and stretched his arms. He and Ron were getting rather tall to both hide under the cloak and its was in a rather cramped way that they had gotten here. Outside though the darkness of the night made them invisible enough and the cloak was not needed.

He and Ron had decided to sneak into the Forest once again and see if they could find anything that would help in the search for Hermione; possibly a hidden entrance, a portal, and clearing where death eaters might be. The forest had of course been searched a few times by Ministry people, but seeing as the forest was rather dangerous it had not been searched thoroughly at all. Harry still did not trust or like the ministry. He and Ron both felt you could never leave the ministry to a job. So they were going to do it themselves. Ginny had been a great help as well, she'd wanted to come along into the forest but Ron had refused and in the end they didn't tell her that they were going tonight. There hadn't been very many attacks in the past month and that was one of the only facts that encouraged Ron to come at all. After Hermione had been captured the death rate of wizards and muggles killed by Voldemort went up sharply. Many wizards and muggles had also been captured and taken god knows where. Presumably killed later and the bodies disintegrated.

Soon the dark trees of the forest loomed up in front of Ron and Harry and with a quick backward glance they walked inside.

A/N: If you have any suggestions or criticism for this story feel free to tell me in your reviews. I'd like to know how I could make it better. I've been making the chapters longer, I've made the length limit 1000 words or over. The first few chapters of this story were only around 500 words. I'm trying to do more from Harry and Ron's view too. 

Dedications To:

Skyler- I'm not sure how I thought of this story, but I remember that when I started to type it I wanted to type a more serious story and a story with Draco becoming nicer, but still Draco, and a Draco/Hermione romance. So with those three things in mind this story evolved. I'm amazed it was so good, its kind of random when you get a good idea or something, I thought this was just gonna be a side story kind of and this other story I'm writing was going to be my best one, but if you take a look at reviews this outshines all my stories by at least seventy reviews. I talk a lot too, sometimes, like now I think. Its like once you get going, you never stop!

AndinaOfRivendell- Thanks for reviewing! Your stories are great too!

muffin shoes- Yay! Um, Yay! That's just what I was trying to do with Draco! ::happiness::  Sorry I took so long to get this chapter out, left MN about a week ago and stayed in Suttons Bay, Michigan for a week or so with no computer and no I'm finally back and in about twenty minutes I have to go to High School Orientation, so, um yeah.

Lady Lanet- Hey, every review counts, I mean each review is just one little review, but all together they are a hundred reviews! Which makes me happy. Heh heh. I'm glad you like it!!

duochang97- I never thought of it like Jews in death camps, but I see that it really is a lot like that; Voldemort disliking wizards with muggle blood and all that. Voldemort has some motive actually for capturing all these people other than torturing them. Har har har. By the way, that's a hint of what's come. Heh.

AlL rOaDs LeAd To HeLl- All the chapters are really building blocks for whats to come actually. Kind of sort of, I mean there's still the main big thing to come… Um, yeah, I'll shut up now.

Marissa03- Sorry for taking so long with this chapter! Read um, one of those things above this and it tells you why I took so long. Of course I can't tell you what I have up my sleeve, that would take away all the fun. But there is a hint in one of those things above this. After this chapters should come more quickly. I hope.

Miyukisetsu- Thanks for reviewing!! Um, running out of things to say, I've said everything to all the above reviewers and no I don't know what to say to you. Um, thanks again! I appreciate all your reveiws!

chickadee77- I'll try to keep the chapters "amazing". I've never written a story this good, I feel in over my head, I think I've already said that thought. Heh. Thanks for reviewing!