Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.









"I just didn't want want to leave without telling you." He finished, his face flushing with warmth..


They were walking down the dark corridors of Hogwarts, the night urging them to return to the dorms, as the curfew snipped at their heels. The two friends had been indulging themselves in a day at Hogsmeade before the Christmas Holidays took both of her best-friends away.


"I..." Hermione started faltering. "I um.." she tried once more, not knowing what to say to this.

He laughed.


"Listen, I'm not asking you to marry me or anything." He said grinning to her as they arrived to her private room. "I'm just asking for a chance."


Hermione twisted her face into a sarcastic grimace at this. But couldn't stop herself from laughing.


Yes it wasn't as if he was asking for marriage.


"I do love you, you know." she said to her friend in a very serious tone as her portrait opened letting her in. She shook her head of the thought and raised her arms up in a sign of uncertainty. She quickly moved to give him a peck on the cheek, and went in to get some well deserved sleep.


"Goodnight Mr. Potter ." she said lovingly as the portrait closed.


"Night love." He said laughing.



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


"Give him a chance?" a cool voice raked the air behind her as she jumped in surprise. "Over my dead body.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~







Her face was red, and her breaths came in short intakes, her lungs burned but she ignored it. The sweat was dripping into her eyes, and the acidity of it burned, but she kept it open, and ignored that too. Her swift foot gripped the ground hard as her arms pumped at her sides. Yet she still made no noise when she run.


Keep you're cool Granger.


She kept repeating the mantra in her mind and it drove her forwards. She had been working undercover in a club known for it's dark clients and she had spotted him. It had to have been him, no one else walked with sultry assurance. No one else had the silvery hair resembling a unicorn.


She came upon a dark alley and halted. He couldn't have gone anywhere else.


She quickly turned her head to all corners, and even to the air. He wasn't there.


She sighed in disappointment. But her ears perked up at a sound coming from the far side of the alley behind a very trashy dumpster. Hermione jerked into action her feet gripping the ground harshly this time.


Something was wrong she could feel it.


She finally halted at the dumpster, and the sight she met almost knocked her out. The smell of it even...It made her dizzy.


A young girl had just seconds ago had been moaning in pain. And it was no wonder.


Her body still shook and jerked from the electricity of a very powerful Cruciatus Curse put on her.


Hermione's own body shook as she bent over the victim. She gasped as she saw her face. The young girl's features were so similar to her own. The dark curls, and the eyes, the eyes that wouldn't shut in her death.


Hermione put her hand to her mouth in disbelief. She held out a shaking hand wanting to touch the girl. But still the electricity circulated her young body.


Hermione looked down in silent mourning for the life lost, and she saw it.


A note.

It beared the Malfoy crest.

And beside it was a single perfect white rose.







End Chapter



I feel so evil right about now.. Leaving you all hanging like that. But don't fret the chapter following has already been written. So go Review and I shall post it soon enough.