Hello everyone! Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated. I've been busy and I've had little time to write. I'm afraid it will be at least two weeks before I update again. Sorry.

Holli, Steve-0, SilverKnight7, alicia, Rojeth, thank you guys so much for all of your reviews. They really mean a lot!

Mountain King, everyone has a reason to be there. You'll see why eventually.

Lisette, I'm glad you're enjoying the characters you don't know. David Eddings has this amazing ability to create fabulous characters that each have their own quirks and nuances about them. I only hope I'm doing them justice.

Pandoras Box1, I'm actually going for three pairings. One should be fairly obvious by this chapter.

Anonymous, Aragorn does have Elvish blood in him through his Numenor blood. The Numenors are the descendants from Elrond's brother's side. (They are both half-elven). If you look in the books at the family trees you can clearly see it. In all actuality, Aragorn and Arwen are distant cousins. So yes, his long life comes through his Nemenorean blood, but that's because it has Elvish in it.

Thanks to my beta PuNKyCoWGiRL!

Chapter Four

Stormy Weather

Draco uselessly tried to peer into the forest around him, but the heavy storm clouds had blocked out the setting sun and the rain seemed to be coming down in solid sheets. "Granger!" He yelled, hoping she'd hear him and answer.

He had been searching for nearly half an hour and was so turned around that he had no clue where he was. If by some miracle he did find her, he wouldn't be able to get them back to the cave.

"Granger!" He tried again.

The lightening flashed, briefly illuminating the forest around him. He saw something just two feet to his right. It was her lying face down on the ground.

Draco rushed over and dropped to the ground next to her. Leaning in close, he gently rolled her over. In the faint light he could just make out the blood on her face.

Gently shaking her, he said, "Wake up, Granger. Come on, Hermione, wake up. If you die Potter will blame it all on me somehow. Come on, Hermione, you really need to wake up."
Realizing that nothing he was doing would wake her up, he decided to change course. He remembered seeing an overhanging rock nearby so he picked up the young witch and carried her in that direction.

Draco stumbled through the forest with only the brief flashes of lightening to light the way. He discovered that the overhanging was actually a small cave that only went back about twenty feet. He headed to the back of the cave to prevent them from getting any wetter than they already were. The blond set her gently on the ground and tried to decide what to do next.

He knew that the bossy slayer said not to use magic, but he had no other way to start a fire or illuminate the cave to see how bad Granger was injured. Making up his mind he pulled out his wand and said, "Lumos!" And the cave was bathed in a faint, white light.

Propping his wand up on a rock so he had both hands free to work, he turned his attention to his companion's head. He couldn't tell how bad the cut was, so, with a grimace, he ripped off a strip of fabric from the bottom hem of his robe and tenderly wiped away the blood. He was relieved to see that the cut wasn't that deep and had already stopped bleeding, but he knew that she would have one hell of a headache when she woke up.

Knowing that they needed to get dry as soon as possible, he removed her robe, sweater, and tie, leaving only her shirt and skirt on. He quickly set about making a magical fire to dry their clothes and themselves by.

As soon as he got it going, he took off his own sweater and robe and laid them next to the fire. He checked to make sure she was still unconscious then removed his shirt and began wringing it out. There was a sudden clap of thunder and she sat up screaming.

"Bloody hell, Granger! Will you stop that?" He sneered. But she continued screaming at the top of her lungs in sheer terror.

Not knowing what else to do, Draco dropped his shirt and ran over to her. He pulled her into his arms and she clung to him in desperation as she sobbed into his shoulder. She quickly cried herself into an uneasy sleep. He tried to disentangle himself, but every time he moved she whimpered and gripped him tighter. So he gave up and leaned back against the wall of the cave to think.

Draco honestly had no idea what had come over him, running out into a storm like that to rescue a girl he didn't even like. He just knew that that Flute girl had something to do with it, otherwise this would have never happened. He wasn't sure why it was so important for him to keep Granger alive. It's not like he would miss her if she was gone.

Hermione shifted slightly in his arms and he realized that she was snuggling with him. It only took him a moment longer to discover that he didn't mind it. In fact, it seemed rather...nice.

He stared down at her and observed that there was a softness about her that he had never noticed before. He had always thought of her as the ugly mudblood know-it-all, never as beautiful. While she still had a lot of hair, it had grown out and wasn't as bushy, and somewhere along the way, she had filled out nicely. The Slytherin was amazed to find that he found the Gryffindor girl beautiful. Attractive even.

A smirk crossed his face, though, as he imagined the look on her face when she woke up next to a half naked Malfoy in the morning.

*********

Harry awoke to see Aragorn's blurry face staring down at him.

"How are you feeling young Master Potter?" The man asked.

"My head hurts."
"That is to be expected," Aragorn said gravely. "You had hit it pretty hard. Is your vision blurry?"

"Yeah, but that's probably because I don't have my glasses on."
"Oh! Here they are," Dawn said, putting them in his hand.

"Thanks," he said. His vision cleared up as he put them on. "I can see fine."
Aragorn looked relieved. "Then I believe we don't need to worry about a concussion." The man sat back on his heels allowing the boy to sit up.

The young wizard looked around and noticed that Garion was back and two people were missing. "Where are Hermione and Malfoy?"
"Hermione and I got separated somehow when it began raining. Draco went looking for her," Garion answered.

"You let that slimy bastard look for her?" Harry yelled. "He'll kill her before saving her!"
"No, he won't," Flute said from the front of the cave. "He'll take care of her," she said smugly.

"Aphrael, what are you up to?" Sparhawk asked.

"I'm not interfering if that's what you're implying," she said loftily, then turned her back to him.

Harry tried to stand. "I have to find her. She's scared of storms."
"You'll only succeed in getting yourself lost of killed," Belgarath said irritably as he placed his hands on the boys shoulders, preventing him from getting up.

"He's right," Legolas said. "We cannot afford to lose anymore members of our company. We have no choice but to wait until the storm passes."
Harry could only stare out the cave into the darkness with horror.