(A/N: It has been pointed out to me by "happydaiz" that it is not The Three Broomsticks in Diagon Alley. "Happydaiz" failed to provide me with the correct name but after a little canon checking I found it is The Leaky Cauldron and have [hopefully] made changes accordingly. If anyone spots this mistake repeated would they please let me know. Also, "kingsdork24" pointed out to me that Hermione has brown eyes, not blue. However, it is my story and the proof of brown eyes is not mentioned until Chamber of Secrets, not to mention in a passing manner, which to me indicates that, well, J.K. does not find this fact mighty ass or canon-shatteringly important. So blue her eyes will remain and as a sticking point I will be bringing it up once every chapter [and at least once in all of my fics forevermore] *grins* Okay, maybe not every chapter….)
It was five o'clock in the afternoon when Hermione opened her eyes. She looked at the clock, and found to her horror that she had been asleep for hours. Worse yet, she couldn't feel Draco's soft shirt on her skin. She lifted up her head to look around. He was not in the room, nor in the bathroom. She could not smell him anywhere, but she did not dare go out and wander the mansion for him. Bloody damn, she thought, where did he go? She got up and began sniffing around the grate to see if he had gone anywhere via the floo network but it did not appear so. As she was looking around, she discovered where he had gone. Through the window she saw a figure on a broomstick. She bounded up to the window and it was indeed Draco. She was not sure what he was doing, he seemed to be circling around, looking for something. She watched him intently for fifteen minutes before he came down and began to head inside. She was hungry she realized and went over to her bowl. On her way there she realized she hadn't been to the bathroom since the morning. She decided that she would go in cat form in case Draco decided to come straight back to his room. She was lucky however; he seemed to be taking his time. She flushed the toilet with a little difficulty, her paws not used to the handle. She then walked out of the bathroom and began to eat the tuna that the house elf had clearly left for her.
Draco must be eating dinner, she thought at the clock struck quarter after five. Or perhaps he had gone to stow away his quidditch things. She began to pace up and down the room to pass the time, but it did not work very well. She looked at the clock every couple of minutes, waiting until Draco walked back through the door. Perhaps Lucius had taken him early? She did not like the thought of that at all. What if he hadn't been taken away at all, what if he had gone to a friend's house, deserting her? Then, she began to cry. As a cat it came out in wails, high pitched and quavering. Suddenly, she heard someone walking quickly down the hallway and immediately realized how foolish she had been. She scrambled under the bed and waited breathless for whoever it was to open the door.
"Cat?" Hermione began to breathe again. It was Draco and she came sulking out from under the bed and cried one last time, softly. She had been so utterly, utterly stupid. How could she have endangered herself like that? Over Draco being gone for maybe a couple of days? She felt like such an idiot. Draco shut the door behind him and tried to pick her up, but she shied away from him. "I heard you crying, come here baby," he said softly. Hermione wanted to hide again but she knew that shying any further would be suspicious, so she stayed where she was. An acceptable cat reaction it seemed, as Draco inched forward and carefully scratched under her chin. "Are you hungry?" He looked over at her empty bowl. "No, you're not hungry are you?" He looked at the window and his eyes seemed to light up with understanding. "You just need to go?" He walked over and opened the window, and Hermione followed him but did not jump out. He waited for a few moments and shut the window. "All right, you don't need to go. What do you need?" Hermione could not help but look away from him, ashamed and embarrassed. He looked at her worried, and then it dawned on him and he smiled. "You woke up and I wasn't here, was I? Did you miss me baby?"
If Hermione could have flushed red she could have. She felt like such an idiot and what was worse, she had missed him. Maybe not missed him per sae but she had become uncharacteristically worried about him. She looked back at him but did not otherwise move a muscle. She did not want to touch him at this moment, she did not want to be touched but his hand came to rest upon her back anyway and she was grateful. They sat in silence and Hermione decided that she had no choice. Tomorrow Draco would be hauled off with his father and she could not get there undetected without his help. She was worried about his reaction but she had to risk it. After all she could just erase his memory again. She took a deep breath and transformed herself into her human form.
When she was finished Draco's arm was still on her back and he was looking at her his mouth agape. She whipped out her wand and put a silencing spell on the room, then locked the door. She realized that her eyes were wet from where she had been crying and she wiped them dry with her sleeve. She then turned to look at Draco who was still dumbstruck but had managed to close his mouth. He brushed her cheek with his hand and Hermione felt his arm slip around her waist. He leaned in close to her until their noses touched and he asked, "Cat?" She nodded and wondered why he wasn't angry. Why wasn't he demanding to know what on earth was going on? But now she didn't have time to think, he had begun to kiss her. It was soft and sweet and for a few seconds she did not respond out of pure shock, but once she got over it she kissed back. He pulled away and looked at her, still not fully comprehending.
"All this time?" he asked frowning slightly. Hermione began to fully feel the guilt that had plagued her in cat form and tears formed in her eyes again. "Bloody hell," she whispered and went to wipe them away, but Draco beat her to it. He was still taking the whole thing extraordinarily well and it scared her. She looked at him, her hand clutching around her wand. "Hermione…" He looked at her hand, sounding almost hurt and she put the wand down. She had enough power to stun him without her wand if need be. Answering his question, she nodded. "I'm here for the Order, Draco. We needed someone to spy on your father." Draco suddenly looked angry and hissed, "So they sent you?! Idiots!" Hermione edged away from him and his expression changed from anger to sympathy. "Please, Hermione, look at me." He turned her cheek with his hand. "I won't hurt you, don't be afraid. I just can't believe they would send you." It was Hermione's turn to be angry now, "Why, because I'm an inept mudblood?" Draco looked at her and his cheeks turned pink again; he looked at the ground. "Please don't say that word."
Hermione was in no mood though, and her old anger at him welled up inside her. "Mudblood! Mudblood! Mudblood!" She shouted it at him. "You used to call me that and now you can't hear it from me?!" she was still shouting. When she looked at him Draco's head had sunk into his pillow, his shoulders were heaving up and down and Hermione realized that he was crying. She sat, still angry for a moment but when he began to sob she felt the adrenaline drain from her. Draco Malfoy was lying on a bed next to her, a quivering mass. A couple of years ago she thought she would have been happy but instead she felt horrible inside. She did not really know what to say, so she lay next to him and ran her hand up and down his back, shushing him softly until his tears subsided. He only cried for a minute or two but to her it had felt like lifetime.
He turned over, his eyes red and looked at into her eyes. She stifled her own tears and said, "I'm sorry Draco. That was pure spite." He looked her hard in the eye. "I'm sorry. The way I treated you…I-" He screwed his eyes up again and a tear came falling out. "Shhh, shhh. It's all right." She said, rubbing his arm. Hermione knew it was a blatant lie and so did Draco. "No, it's not, I'm sorry." He reached out and pulled her head to his chest. Apparently he had been harbouring his guilt for some time, Hermione thought. But he did seem genuinely regretful. She gave in and wrapped her arm around his chest. "Draco, please, don't cry anymore. I have something important to tell you." Draco had mostly stopped crying by this time, he wiped his eyes and asked "Is it to do with the Order?" "Yes. I have to go with you tomorrow night, Draco. I need to go with you, the Order needs more information." He looked angry again. "Hermione, no! You can't go with me, I won't let you." She gave him The Look. "I'm going whether you like it or not, I have a mission to complete. I have an invisibility cloak, I will be fine. I will be more fine if you help me."
Draco considered this, knowing that she would not budge. What were his choices? He gave in. "All right, I'll help you. But…" Hermione waited, but no end to the sentence was forthcoming. "You can come back with me and join the Order. We will protect you, you have inside information that we need." He looked around his room and then back at her. "If I do, I can never come back." Hermione shook her head. "What's here for you Draco? Your self-centered mother and an abusive father? Fancy clothes and food?" Draco nodded. "You're right. When you go there will be nothing left for me here." Despite herself she smiled. "I don't want you to watch Hermione…what they do to me there." Hermione looked sternly at him. "It's my fault that they do it. I know that your father knows how you feel about me, about muggle borns." "I'm asking you Hermione, please-" "I've licked the blood from your wounds Draco. I've mostly figured out what they do to you from that alone." Draco shook his head. "Not this time, Hermione. This time they're…" Afraid to even ask she forced herself to press him, "What are they going to do to you?" He sighed heavily. "They're going to give me the Dark Mark."